Buck

The Adventures of Orange, an Aperol Apparition.

There are times when I see a piece of work that I wish I could see in context to the environment, and the video below is one of them. Every time I am at a sporting event and I see the wrap around animation that rolls on those LCD panels that ring the stadium, I’m curious about the pre-vis planning that goes into developing them. And in the case of the video for Aperol produced by Buck, I’m curious not only about how they planned it out, but how they executed it, and what it looked like at the Australian Open. Think about this, you have an animation that has to play in sequence as it wraps around the court, starting at one point, and ending at the same point. And it has an aspect ratio of something like 1500 to 1.

So how do you set that up? How do you plan for delivery to something like a Cayin digital signage system, get everything rendered correctly, and make sure playback is seamless? So many questions, so little time.

With all that said, the animated piece below from Buck is once again a great example of the quality of work these guys do. It captures the Aperol brand so well, plus the casual and somewhat elegant feeling of a tennis open so well. There is a really fresh feel about the look with a retro nod to the late 1970’s and early 1980’s stylistically. The warm color pallet enhances the fact that when this was released it was mid summer in Australia, where an Aperol spritzer would be quite refreshing on a warm summer afternoon. It makes me wish I had been there

It makes me wish I had been there. Not only to see the animation in context but to imbibe a bit as well.

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BUCK Sydney Blends.

Last week the Blend festival in Vancouver kicked off, and this animated short from the BUCK team in Sydney opened the show. Created by Gareth O’Brien and featuring childlike  crazy 8 bit music and sound design from Antfood the video is a great play on words. The BUCK team were inspired by their friends at Wine after Coffee who gave them the theme: Blend. Blend they do.

More Than The Score.

I never saw this promo air during the US Open. It might have played locally, but since I tend to mute, pause and skip, or record then blast past ads, I probably just missed it. Produced by BUCK for IBM and Ogilvy & Mather, the animated short features loads of data visualizations done up in an entertaining way, set to the beat of Andrew W.K’s “I Love New York City”. In typical fashion BUCK nails the animation and brand styling for IBM. It’s worth watching all the way through if for no other reason than the facts they present about the US Open and New York. Oh they get extra points for going with a square format for the finished piece.

It’s Going To Be A “Heart Winter”.

I’m not a fan of McDonalds food, but you have to hand it to their advertising. It’s usually top notch, and they do hire the best. McDonalds AOR Leo Burnett hired BUCK to produce the new animated TV spot for the McCafe line of hot drinks. Directed by Ryan Honey BUCK blends 2D and 3D animation seamlessly in the 30 second spot titled “Heart Winter”. The spot features nicely stylized, but not overly cute character’s clever transitions between scenes, and a fluid animation style all set to a jangly happy tune.  It’s hard not to like the look of the commercial, even if you aren’t a fan of McDonalds.

Executive Creative Director: Ryan Honey
Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
Associate Creative Directors: Jenny Ko, Steve Day
CG Supervisor: Doug Wilkinson
Producer: Billy Mack
Production Coordinator: Kaitlyn Mahoney
Storyboards: Morgan Schweitzer, Vincent Lee, Marcus Park, Susan Yung
Design: Jenny Ko, Yuki Yamada, Susan Yung, Gunnar Pettersson, Ken Gunn Lee, Joe Mullen
Cel Animation: Kendra Ryan, Kyle Mowat, Eric Cheng, Laura Yilmaz, Craig Yamamoto, Ben Conkin, Song Kim
AE Animation & Compositing: Nick Petley, Simon Ekstrand Appel, Anthony Madlangbayan, Zach Eastburg, Esteban Esquivo, Jake Portman, Ariel Costa
3D Artists: Wing Lee, Florent Raffray