PandaPanther: Pop Tarts “Flavorhood”

Posted by Tyquane Wright

pandapanther_poptarts_flavorhood

PandaPanther recently posted “Flavorhood,” a magical spot for Pop Tarts and agency Leo Burnett.

Charming character designs, a lush rendering style and unabashedly adorable visual effects make “Flavorhood” unique. Directors Jonathan Garin and Naomi Nishimura’s acute attention to color and tiny aniamated details add great personality to the work.

We caught up with Jonathan for some information about the project:

Flavorhood was definitely a beast in many aspects, from both the practical and digital sides.  We went through extensive planning and prepping before we started building anything, using our original previs as a guide for real world measurements and frame counts from scene to scene. So in the end, the final picture is very close to what we originally set out to do.

It’s definitely the largest set we’ve ever built, about 16x20ft, created in sections, with little pop out holes so people could reach different areas during the shoot.  Most things in the spot are constantly changing or transforming which meant shooting multiples of passes, making for a very intricate shoot and compositing puzzle. And when you throw in everything thats coming out of 3D, it definitely kept everyone busy.

flavorhood making of

Check out the behind the scenes action for “Flavorhood.” Its just as fun as watching the final spot!


Title: PopTarts Flavorhood
Length: 30 seconds
Air Date: July 20th, 2009

Client: Kellogg Company
Agency: Leo Burnett
Agency Producer: Alethya Luiselli
Agency Creatives: PJ MacGregor, Keenan Pridmore

Production Company: PandaPanther
Directors: Naomi Nishimura & Jonathan Garin
Executive Producer: Lindsay Bodanza

Designers: Naomi Nishimura, Ari Hwang
Animation: Han Hu, Miles Southan, Jeffrey Lopez, Yong Chan Kim, Kyle Mohr
Modeling: Jon Dorfman, Ari Hwang
Rigging: Marco Burbano
Tracking: Steven Hill
Compositors: Matt St. Leger, Bashir Hamid
3D Artists: Ari Hwang, Ignacio Ayestaran, Mirelle Underwood, Jaemin Lee, JiYoung Yoo

Art Department: Junko Shimizu, Grant Guilliams, Tonya Thornton, Shinya Nakamura, Kazu Yoshitake, Keiko Miyamori, Akiko Isomoto, Kyoko Sera, Draga Susanj, Sarah Bostwick

Production Assistants: Arwita Adinegoro, Giles Sherwood, Patrick Engle, Alexis DeHart Stephens, Kenji Ryuko, Shunsuke Tsuchiya, Bindy Subdhan

Motion Control Rig Operator: Richard Coppola

Director of Photography: Carolyn Taylor

Music & Sound Design: Waveplant / Composer: Joel Corelitz
Audio Post & Sound Design: Static Studios / Engineer: Steven Vandeven

About the author

Tyquane Wright

/ www.easein.com
I am a student at New York University. I love motiongraphics.
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8 Comments

martz

how dem twitter birds get in dere

also – just ate 2 pop tarts (cinnamon sugar)

gabgrenier

since i saw some ads made with the ‘real’ technique instead of 3D (royale’s monopoly as an example), i’m just wondering: why?

i’m not a 3D guy and i’m all about doing things real, but i’m just asking, except for the look, what’s the difference in term of budget, client relation, decisions between doing this kind of work and a full-3d spot?

astralis

I can’t figure out why they used any sort of physical material at all. There’s a noticeable influence from The Sims 2 in this, most definitely heard in the music (a little too close??).

monovich

Its so lush and hard to absorb all the details on a first or second pass. I also wonder how people decide to go practical (vs. CG) as well, because the real things in the shots have a stylized CG feel to them in the end anyway.

I did see a pitch recently where the studio upsold the live action+CG angle and said that the live action would add an element you just couldn’t get from CG. This may be true, but building a 16×20 miniature certainly would push the budget up which is always a good thing in the world of agencies.

Either way, props to PandaPanther, the piece is lovely.

Tyquane Wright

Where I work their are tons of practical stuff shot as reference and as green screen elements. They build a CG version to compliment all practical elements, if possible. I think this gives the artists (or director) maximum control when in lighting and compositing. If a shot can be finished by just throwing the practical element into a comp it makes the job easy. And if a shot is all CG, having the original plate there in its lit environment is a great reference. Creating a perfect mix between the 2 just fools everybody :)

Well at least I’m fooled most of the time.

suprememoves

I saw this the other day and rewound it 3-4 times. Love these guys.

Nathan Love

I Love it! This is the best one yet (of the 3 i’ve seen). The practical sets give the piece a warmth that’s hard to achieve in 3D alone. The designs are fun and playful, but it’s the transitions from the grey to Pop-Tarts world that really sell the piece for me… Great work guys!

cyril caine

What kind of 3D program do you use?

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