COMMERCIAL FX When The Character Shop does commercial work, we usually take an entirely different stylistic approach to creating characters than we would on most feature films. Commercials want to present a pleasing, upbeat image to consumers, so that you can relate in a positive manner to the characters associated with a company, and therefore feel good about their product. By and large, our commercial work consists of creating either whimsical characters or realistic creatures. Many times, it's a subtle blending of both. A lot of ad agency ideas revolve around real creatures doing clever things they're not actually capable of. We'll be called on to create an animatronic animal, and have to make it believable enough to be able to intercut with shots of the real thing. However, if you study many animals' faces, you'll discover (unless they're really young and cute) they're actually kind of "hard" looking. They aren't equipped with a lot of facial expression because it's not necessary that they have them, and nature strives to be efficient, doesn't it? The predatory (or prey) look of an animal's eyes can end up looking "cold" and "inhuman". Hey, what did you expect? They're animals! Our job? Make 'em friendly, approachable, likable. We anthropomorphize their facial features just enough; bringing "prey" eyes which normally look outward (looking dumb or vulnerable) forward for a more human-like, intelligent look, and adding brow movement for expression. We'll take a dark black eyeball and add a lighter margin around it to make it look more familiar. We'll add in smiles, lip and cheek movement to give it a range of expression. But you have to buy it. There's a thin line between "humanizing" the animals' physiognomy and making it look unrealistic. One of our strengths is in knowing just how much to keep authentic, and how much to modify the features so you believe it. Select any photo to view a larger version. For Sony, TCS created a bizarre little alien puppet named "Plato". There were two main bodies; one for walking scenes, and one for shots where the puppet was seated in one place. There were two different heads: a close-up animatronic head and a lighter weight "walking" head. One of the coolest things about this puppet was that several times, he did walk. This was done via using a version of the Japanese Bunraku technique. For an Apple iMac spot and Director Kinka Usher, TCS produced two working iMac “puppets”. The first was servo and cable operated, and allowed for complete remote operation. This served for wider, establishing shots. However, for closer shots, another rod operated puppet, which featured smoother motions, was used.  An authentic-looking Galapagos Tortoise replica (actually, we built three of them!) for a new Budweiser spot. They featured hand-puppeteered head, neck, mouth, and breathing movements, and radio-controlled eyes, blinks, and brows. A urethane resin shell and a matte-finish foam latex skin complete the "look". Animatronic cow puppets for MILLER LITE "Cowabunga" commercial. Three separate puppets were built, the largest having animatronic head, neck, tail, eye, blink, brow, nose, and jaw movements. The BUD FROGS Our surfing cow for Miller Lite used a "slightly modified reality" approach. There was only one shot of a real cow used in the spot; the rest were realistic puppets we created. It's also how we did the Bud frogs; gave them realistic body proportions, movements, textures, and color schemes, but added a subtle caricaturization and humanization to the faces so you can relate to them.  At the other end of the commercials spectrum, there's the opportunity to go totally silly, wacky, and cutesy. Our recent bug-eyed, purple aliens for the Aluminum Can Association are a recent prime example of this. A totally animatronic vegetable spokesman for Kraft salad dressing was a design groundbreaker, both cosmetically and technologically. And the low-tech, grungy, funky look of our Foster Farms chickens is part of their award-winning** charm. The fact is, we like it all over the map; it keeps us fresh, excited, and happy to tackle a wide range of characters. A totally animatronic Arcimboldo-ish vegetable head spokesman for a KRAFT SALAD DRESSING spot. Brows, blinks, eyes, cheeks, jaw, lips, and mustache operated via TCS' Facial Waldo Æ. Goofy, non-animatronic chicken characters for FOSTER FARMS CHICKEN, created and puppeteered by The Character Shop. Will computer graphics take over animatronic work in commercials in the future? Yes, to some extent. It will make competition tougher. But right now, the tools for CG still aren't sophisticated enough to totally replace what we do. In fact, we've noted a sort of CG backlash recently; many agencies, clients, and production companies are saying they don't want that CG "look". And there will always be directors who like to see actors, sets, props, and puppets interact and play in front of their eyes in real time. We like those types! For The Character Shop, commercial production accounts for half of all the fun we have, half the challenges and half the satisfying solutions. It also accounts for 50% of our income. We have a nice slice of the market share, and we're intent on growing this side of the business. Got a national spot or campaign that needs some believable characters? We're game! For further details (and pictures) about our commercial work, see our individual sections on Whimsical, Scary, Realistic, Prosthetic, Puppet, and Animatronic characters. Note: *Our tongue 'n' truck spot also won a Bronze Lion at Cannes! **Yet another Bronze Lion winner. Keep 'em coming, folks! 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