Animal Logic Expands LA Studio, Wraps HBO, Toyota & Kaiser Spots

Award-winning digital production company Animal Logic bolsters its LA commercials and short form studio with a larger team, new location and an impressive slate of recently completed projects.

Press Release from Animal Logic

Award-winning digital production company Animal Logic bolsters its LA commercials and short form studio with a larger team, new location and an impressive slate of recently completed projects. Its latest work demonstrates diverse scale and capabilities with a range of design, seamless visual effects and animation created for Toyota, Kaiser and HBO.

Following Animal Logic’s expansion in the US, relocating to a larger Santa Monica studio and growing its crew of talented artists and producers, the team recently delivered a range of unique projects spanning a variety of mediums from television commercials to visual art installations.

Maury Strong, Executive Producer explains: “We are a design based and very service oriented ‘creative studio’ in Santa Monica, with the firepower of a major VFX and animation studio of 450 + artists back in Sydney, available to us via massive pipeline. We are giving our US clients the flexibility and agility of a nimble boutique style company, while still able to deliver large scale high end projects in a schedule that only the big studios can deliver.”

Recent additions to the LA team include Art Directors Ben Walsh and Fletcher Moules, and Associate Creative Director Kevin Fitzgerald. Walsh relocated from Animal Logic’s Sydney studio in June and recently directed a striking eco water-themed global spot for Toyota. Fitzgerald joined the team following a 5 year tenure as Associate Creative Director at Cartoon Network and Moules relocated from London, rejoining the Animal Logic family following two years with Nexus Productions. They join an already established group of talented VFX supervisors and creative producers who have relocated from Sydney and London to join the growing Los Angeles studio.

Following highlights the three latest campaigns delivered by Animal Logic’s LA studio:

HBO - ‘Imagine’Animal Logic’s collaboration with award-winning director Noam Murro and Biscuit Filmworks continues in a multi-faceted marketing campaign for broadcast giant HBO. Created by BBDO New York as a follow up to 2007 ‘Voyeur’ campaign HBO’s new brand campaign titled ‘Imagine’ features a mix of online, outdoor, television and digital elements.

Animal Logic provided visual effects for an outdoor video installation located in New York’s Meatpacking District. Two x two-minute short films, ‘Open Doors’ and ‘Heist’, are projected on to a large scale video cube. As the scenes unfold, each side of the cube reveals a different camera angle providing the viewer with four unique vantage points.

VFX Supervisor Nick Ponzoni explains “ For ‘Heist’ the key challenge was to match the action and timing for each of the four panels since each side of the cube was shot separately. To finesse the final images, some of the characters and actions were digitally removed, replaced and re-timed to create the final seamless effect. In ‘Open Doors’, the action was shot for each side of the cube simultaneously so set extensions were placed into the scene to hide cameras and act as a point of reference for the viewer to track the unfolding storyline.” The Animal Logic team also provided post and visual effects for three clever 30 second spots, titled ‘Trapped’, ‘The Big One’ and ‘Happy Kid’ to complement the innovate campaign. HBO’s ‘Imagine’ campaign was launched in New York on 17th September 2009.

Toyota - ‘Ripple’Toyota and Dentsu NY called upon Animal Logic’s digital expertise to create its latest global campaign for the eco-friendly Prius. In the new 30 second spot ‘Ripple’, directed by Animal Logic’s Ben Walsh, we follow a digital water droplet as it hugs the contours of the new vehicle and drops into a stylized CG lake below, emphasizing Toyota’s ever expanding environmentally conscious solutions and technology.

Ben Walsh explained “For logistical reasons we decided on making the car, water drop and the environment completely CG. This gave us the freedom to follow the journey of the water drop over the Prius with no restrictions on where to put our camera or how close we could come to the falling water drop.” The Toyota ‘Ripple’ global campaign was launched in September 2009 in the United States.

Kaiser Permanente - ‘Emerald Cities’ and ‘Connected’Animal Logic delivered beautifully crafted visual effects for the latest campaign from Kaiser Permanente. Titled ‘Emerald Cities’ and ‘Connected’ the new TV spots were directed by Biscuit Filmworks’ Noam Murro for agency Campbell Ewald.

Animal Logic was responsible for transforming an urban concrete jungle into a fertile landscape. Hundreds of towering matte-painted trees were integrated into a busy city streetscape. VFX Supervisor Nick Ponzoni said “One of the most challenging aspects was to create a totally believable and organic world, with the live action naturally combining with the digital elements. We worked closely with Noam during the pre-production stage to carefully storyboard the spot. The preliminary work paid off during the final compositing stage, with all of the elements; the aerial shots, live action plates, miniatures, digital assets and matte paintings blending together.” ‘Emerald Cities’ and ‘Connected’ were launched in the US in September 2009.