Thanks to Stef and the team at Fox 8 for making the production of the True Blood series promo so much fun.

A delight for all Vampire fans, the spot travels through the bar and into a bottle of True Blood – the choice for all discerning blood suckers…

On our journey, from the macro to the micro, we discover that the blood cells inside the bottle are actually created by FOX 8. The ident reveals FOX 8’s branding in a surprising and innovative way - building on the idea of finding FOX 8 in places you never expect…

Thanks to Mark, Prema and the team for all their help on the recent branding idents project, part of the new branding for FOX 8.

Eye Candy were asked to come up with an innovative way to create ident spots where the audience were to expect the unexpected…

Thanks to Mark, Prema and the team for all their help on the recent branding idents project, part of the new branding for FOX 8.

Eye Candy were asked to come up with an innovative way to create ident spots where the audience were to expect the unexpected…

The solution, created through collaboration between FOX 8 and Eye Candy creative teams, is a series of short ident spots where FOX 8 pops up in unexpected every day places. We find Fox 8 as bubbles in a fishbowl, playing Pinball, in a bowl of Cereal and also as part of a Newtons Cradle.

Where will we find FOX8 next?

See also our True Blood Promo for FOX8

True Blood – Tastes Great!

Thanks to Stef and the team at Fox 8 for making the production of the True Blood series promo so much fun.

A delight for all Vampire fans, the spot travels through the bar and into a bottle of True Blood – the choice for all discerning blood suckers…

On our journey, from the macro to the micro, we discover that the blood cells inside the bottle are actually created by FOX 8. The ident reveals FOX 8’s branding in a surprising and innovative way - building on the idea of finding FOX 8 in places you never expect…

See also our Station Idents for FOX8

Thanks to all the team at XYZ Networks and Lifestyle Food in making June Cake Crazy with Eye Candy!

June has been Cake Crazy at Lifestyle Food! And to bring this fantastical world of Cake to life, Eye Candy were briefed to ensure Cakes were literally crossing the road and raining from the sky to get involved. Eyre Candy created a world of cake in this 45 second promo to be played across the channel to whet viewers appetite for a truly indulgent month - Yum!

Thanks to all involved and next month will be spent shifting all those calories…

Eye Candy recently added a little bit of magic to the Streets Blue Ribbon Family Pack 30 sec TV spot.

Streets were rolling out a new range of flavours in the Blue Ribbon Family Packs of ice cream and wanted to overhaul an existing TVC. We were called upon to track in 3D replacement packs, camera track the move over the miniature from the existing spot (adding in a sprinking of particle lollies raining down from the sky) as well as creating a completely new endframe to promote the 3 new flavours.

Another example of tasty animation! Bring on Summer we say…

During 2010, Eye Candy was commissioned by Essential Media and Entertainment to create and deliver animation and VFX for a number of programs, 3 of which (’MIRACLES: Miracle in the Storm’, ‘The Making of Modern Australia’ and ‘Gourmet Farmer’) have all been nominated for Logies!

Miracle in the Storm:
- Nearly 10 minutes of high definition animation and VFX were produced for the ‘in storm’ and ‘above storm’ sequences seen in the program using a combination of greenscreen elements, matte painted backgrounds and digital doubles.

Making of Modern Australia:
- Eye Candy produced around 75 individual shots per episode across the 3 part series, as well as the design and execution of the opening title sequence.

Gourmet Farmer:
- Design and execution of a 30 second title sequence to illustrate Mathew Evans’ seachange, as he embraces his brave yet challenging journey from ‘feared Sydney food critic’ to ’self-sufficient famer’ on a property in Tasmania.

Snippets from all of these shows can be seen in our latest show reel.

Thanks go out to Essential Media and the talented people involved in producing these programs, fingers crossed!

Eye Candy Animation working with Director Marcell Lunam just finished a complete rebranding of the Qantas Domestic inflight channel, Q.

The project titled “Mobius Why We Fly” included 7 opening and closing title sequences that explore a continuous movement of beautifully integrated animations within urban and rural locations across Australia. 

In each spot we follow a fluid journey from the ground to the air as the “mobius” metamorphoses through various shapes before finally resolving to the Q logo.

An original sound track “My My” was also written and recorded for the spots by young Australian Artist Vanessa Jade and produced at Alberts Studios by Wayne Connolly.

Eye Candy Animation working with Director Marcell Lunam just finished a complete rebranding of the Qantas Domestic inflight channel, Q.

The project titled “Mobius Why We Fly” included 7 opening and closing title sequences that explore a continuous movement of beautifully integrated animations within urban and rural locations across Australia. 

In each spot we follow a fluid journey from the ground to the air as the “mobius” metamorphoses through various shapes before finally resolving to the Q logo.

An original sound track “My My” was also written and recorded for the spots by young Australian Artist Vanessa Jade and produced at Alberts Studios by Wayne Connolly.

Eye Candy were very excited to be invited to create the lastest branding campaign for the Canberra Institute of Technology.

CIT offers over 700 courses and required a clever solution to indicate the wide range of options available in a 30 second spot and to do this in a way that was informal, warm and friendly portraying CIT as a progressive leading training provider. Our creative concept for television needed to articulate across to a cinema format also and be of a nature that would allow the idea to roll out into an integrated campaign - spanning television, cinema, web and print.

With one of our great friends and long time creative collaborater Ken Buchan, we developed a solution to the brief and created the campaign idea - ‘change the course of your life’. A stills shoot on greenscreen gave us everything we needed from the Talent, everything else in the commercial was constructed using a combination of 3D and 2D animation tools.

Brand agency Coordinate handled the logo design, print and web aspects of the job to make this a truly integrated campaign.

Many thanks to all that were involved!

CIT offers over 700 courses and required a clever solution to indicate the wide range of options available and to do this in a way that was informal, warm and friendly portraying CIT as a progressive leading training provider.

Our creative concept for television needed to articulate across to a cinema format also and be of a nature that would allow the idea to roll out into a broader integrated campaign - spanning television, cinema, web and print. From this, we developed a solution to the brief and created the tagline - ‘change the course of your life’. A stills shoot on greenscreen gave us everything we needed from the Talent, everything else in the commercial was constructed using a combination of 3D and 2D animation tools.

Thanks also to our collaboraters coordinate, who handled all other aspects of the campaign (logo design, web & print).

Eye Candy has had it’s fourth year involvement with the Canberra Tertiary Open Day event  with a simple concept and upgraded character named ‘TOD’, who has helped build awareness with a very hard-to-reach target audience.

TOD is a neutral, ageless and genderless character, designed to represent anyone interested in attending university and encourages school leavers, mature age and graduate students from across Australia to attend the Canberra Tertiary Open Day, which is a collaboration between Canberra’s five tertiary institutions (CIT, ADFA, ANU, UC and ACU).

Essential Media & Entertainment commissioned Eye Candy to create an opening title sequence for Gourmet Farmer, which tells the story of Matthew Evans, a food critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and his ’sea change’ to a small farm in Tasmania. As one of Australia’s toughest food critics, Matthew gave up his city life in persuit of his belief that we should all be directly connected with our food, either by growing it or rearing it ourselves and the show follows his adventures in making this happen.

 To convey this story, an enormous amount of research was done by the team, with thousands of digital stills taken on location in both the Tasmanian countryside and in the city, while Matthew Evans was shot on green screen, to produce this title sequence, which was then animated in 3D.

Last year, Eye Candy was honoured on the international stage, again taking out a number of awards at the 43^nd Annual WorldFest in Houston, Texas. The reputable International Film Festival receives entries from all over the world and has repeatedly credited Eye Candy’s work in years past.

Creative Director, Damian Stocks, is thrilled to again be recognised by the film festival. “We’ve always had success with our entries at WorldFest and I think it’s a huge accomplishment considering how many admissions they receive from all over the globe,” Stocks says.

The festival’s highest honour, the Platinum REMI, was awarded to the team for their popular animated TVC, Billy Hughes. Eye Candy also took home a Silver REMI for their work on Grainwaves and a Bronze REMI for their Stay Smart Online video.

The team was delighted with their success, particularly with the Platinum REMI for Billy Hughes. The result at WorldFest means Eye Candy have won an award for every commercial produced in the Old Parliament House series which were created to build awareness about the historic attraction.

“It is a great credit to the team because we all worked tirelessly on this series of commercials, so to be awarded for each individual TVC is awesome,” Stocks says.

Check out the portfolio page to see the award winning work!

Having had a strong relationship previously forged with Design Addiction, Eye Candy was given the task of producing an opener for a series of short films to be played on the Qantas in-flight channel Q.

Eye Candy’s approach was to attempt to show the creative process in a visual way using animation and created a graphics package including the opener, a super bar and credits page.

Working with Clemenger BBDO Sydney, Eye Candy produced this TVC to help launch Virgin Atlantic’s Visit Britain campaign. This fun and simple 30 second commercial promotes Virgin’s sale on fares from Australia to the UK and works to compel the audience to pop on over to attend festivals, sporting events or just to visit family.

Using a cardboard cut out style of animation, the team successfully produced this entertaining TVC on a tight budget in just over a week.

As Old Parliament House evolves into The Museum of Australian Democracy, Eye Candy, yet again, was honored with the task of creating the TVC for their new branding. Ahead of the launch, the team produced a series of 3 TVC’s that provoke thought and questions among the audience about Australian democracy and the decisions we have made as a nation. The team treated these iconic images to give the illusion that the audience was witnessing these historic moments in time.

Clemenger BBDO Sydney awarded Eye Candy the task of producing this 15 second TVC for the popular household brand Campbell’s. As the worlds economic climate continues to generate fear among consumers, Campbell’s Soup sought to create an advertisement that appealed to peoples pockets. Eye Candy went about creating this TVC entirely in CG and on a budget that worked. Choosing animation over live action was not only more economically viable, but it also allowed for a faster turn around in production time and gave the client the utmost control as to how the vegetable looked down to the level of how fine the “spritz” droplets were on the tomatoes and how earthy the mushrooms appeared.

Eye Candy designed and developed this 30 second spot that distinguishes Sportingbet from its competitors while advertising the range of sports available to bet on. Our team combined 2D design with 3D animation to produce this sleek, striking and energetic spot to be aired at race meets across Australia.

This shot breakdown demonstrates how the final scenes were built up from stock image to completed shot.

Back to commercial - Milkshake

In collaboration with Grey Worldwide, Eye Candy produced this playful 30 second TVC to promote TransACT’s new HomeMobile Cap plan. The commercial follows a mobile and a home phone who have fallen in love because, “they’re just so good together”. We watch their love blossom as they venture to the movies, share a milkshake, run in the rain and sit back and watch the sunset.

The agency creatives selected a handful of stock images to be used as backgrounds for the TVC, which were broken into layers and manipulated to resemble live action. 3D telephones were then built and animated into each stock image.

Click here for the ‘rainy city’ shot breakdown:

Eye Candy recently had the opportunity to give back to the local community by teaming up with a number of Canberra businesses to produce two animated TVC’s for the non-profit organisation, Galiee. The Canberra based organisation seeks to give a brighter future to disadvantaged children in the local area and Eye Candy was proud to play a part in building awareness and support for the important cause.

The team used a blocking style of animation using 3D models and an NPR rendering engine which resulted in the illusion of 2D/hand drawn animation. These simple, effective and heart felt animations have been well received by both the client and the community.

Check out the other Galilee TVC:

galilee-problem

Eye Candy recently had the opportunity to give back to the local community by teaming up with a number of Canberra businesses to produce two animated TVC’s for the non-profit organisation, Galiee. The Canberra based organisation seeks to give a brighter future to disadvantaged children in the local area and Eye Candy was proud to play a part in building awareness and support for the important cause.

The team used a blocking style of animation using 3D models and an NPR rendering engine which resulted in the illusion of 2D/hand drawn animation. These simple, effective and heart felt animations have been well received by both the client and the community.
Check out the other Galilee TVC:

galiliee-foster

In the build up to Christmas, Clemenger BBDO Sydney teamed up with Eye Candy to produce a series of TVCs for Millers Fashion. Airing in both Australia and New Zealand the 15 second commercials were produced to promote the store wide December sales.

The team created a base TVC to aide in the production process by breaking down each script and working out core elements. The Christmas box, super and hand were first modeled and animated. Thereafter, the textures/shaders and supers were changed for each TVC where the final composite was graded to suit the new colour scheme. This resulted in a simple yet effective end product and a very happy client.

In collaboration with Zoo Advertising, Eye Candy produced this TVC to help launch the National Gallery’s exhibition of French impressionist, Edgar Degas. With over 120 of Degas’ works on display, it will be the first time the Master of French Art exhibition will be shown in the southern hemisphere and is exclusive to Canberra.

To ensure the integrity of the art was not compromised, the studio team relied on simple camera movements that panned throughout each painting. Depth was further added to the pieces of work in an attempt to break out of 2 dimensions and immerse the viewer into the world of Degas.

Working in collaboration with Bearcage Productions on a terrifying timeline, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for Australia’s leading home loan broker, Mortgage Choice. In just over a week, the three TVC’s were produced to help promote the company’s variety of home loan options and expert service and advice. Working off blueprint concepts provided by Brave and existing end frame elements from previous commercials, the team designed each TVC with the aim of illustrating the confusion, aggravation and tediousness of finding the right home loan. Using basic 3D models, a simple blocking animation style and non photo realistic shaders the characters were able to sit comfortably in the mixed media world that Brave had envisaged.

Check out the other Mortgage Choice TVC’s:

escape-hatches-3

Working in collaboration with Bearcage Productions on a terrifying timeline, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for Australia’s leading home loan broker, Mortgage Choice. In just over a week, the three TVC’s were produced to help promote the company’s variety of home loan options and expert service and advice. Working off blueprint concepts provided by Brave and existing end frame elements from previous commercials, the team designed each TVC with the aim of illustrating the confusion, aggravation and tediousness of finding the right home loan. Using basic 3D models, a simple blocking animation style and non photo realistic shaders the characters were able to sit comfortably in the mixed media world that Brave had envisaged.

Check out the other Mortgage Choice TVC’s:
escape-hatches-1

Held in Melbourne late last month, the awards celebrated some of the greatest illustration, photography, website design, print, student design and more importantly, animation, within the Australian creative industry.

The team’s creative directors, Damian Stocks and Rachael Johnson, flew down for the event and were happily surprised to return home with the prize. “We hadn’t expected to win, so it was just an added bonus to an enjoyable night,” Johnson said. Hosted by comedian, Dave Callan, the event was a great opportunity to mingle with other creative elites within the industry.

This was the first year the Create Awards featured a Digital Media category and it proved popular with many successful animation and digital media studios entering work. Four of Eye Candy’s entries were short listed within the category, including their short film, Bees Knees. “Having so many projects short listed for the awards is a great illustration of the hard work and dedication of our team,” said Stocks.

The judging for the award considered the technical skill, creative execution and power of the message of each animation.

A full page spread of Eye Candy’s work can be found in this months Desktop issue along with other winners from the night.

This simple yet effective 30 second commercial was created to promote TransACT’s new mobile cap plan. The commercial was produced to give the client the flexibility to revise the middle section of the TVC as new TransACT promotions became available. Contracted by Grey World Wide, Eye Candy modeled and animated this Nokia 6300 to vibrate throughout advertisement. The team managed a quick turn around for this job with a fantastic end result.

Clemenger BBDO Sydney approached Eye Candy to produce this 30 second TVC for Smith Chips’ new brand, Grainwaves. The commercial tells the story of one little grain’s dream to become a chip, despite his family and friends believing his destiny is to grow up into a piece of bread. The young grain, however, follows his dream and becomes the first ever Grainwaves chip.

Working closely with Clemenger’s creative team, Eye Candy designed and constructed the 3D world of the little grain and its inhabitants. Featuring the voice of famous Australian actor, Bill Hunter, the animation exudes a cosy humanistic quality that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

With droughts tipped to be longer, drier and more frequent the ACTEW Corporation has been working to increase the ACT region’s sources of water. Bearcage Productions and Eye Candy collaborated to make this 30 second TVC to help illustrate ACTEW’s plan to enlarge one of Canberra’s main water supplies, Cotter Dam.

Hired for their visual effects expertise, the team oversaw all the special effects for this project. The rising water levels and dam wall/walkway that constructs as time passes were all produced by Eye Candy to help the community understand ACTEW’s project and the future outcomes.

www.staysmartonline.gov.au was established to encourage Australian internet users to adopt smart e-security practices. To compliment this, we created three videos which demonstrate how individuals can improve their online behaviours and computer defences. Paying homage to the cold war nuclear warning film ‘duck and cover’ and drawing on existing print material, we created an informative and fun video using a light-hearted approach similar to that of 1960’s television title sequences like “Bewitched” and “I dream of Jeannie”. Click on the links below to see the other two videos.

– Protect Your Computer
– Wireless Internet Security

www.staysmartonline.gov.au was established to encourage Australian internet users to adopt smart e-security practices. To compliment this, we created three videos which demonstrate how individuals can improve their online behaviours and computer defences. Paying homage to the cold war nuclear warning film ‘duck and cover’ and drawing on existing print material, we created an informative and fun video using a light-hearted approach similar to that of1960’s television title sequences like “Bewitched” and “I dream of Genie”. Click on the links below to see the other two videos.

– Personal and Financial Information
– Wireless Internet Security

www.staysmartonline.gov.au was established to encourage Australian internet users to adopt smart e-security practices. To compliment this, we created three videos which demonstrate how individuals can improve their online behaviours and computer defences. Paying homage to the cold war nuclear warning film ‘duck and cover’ and drawing on existing print material, we created an informative and fun video using a light-hearted approach similar to that of1960’s television title sequences like “Bewitched” and “I dream of Genie”. Click on the links below to see the other two videos.

– Protect Your Computer
– Personal and Financial Information

Billy Hughes was the Prime Minister of Australia during the turbulent years of WW1. Hughes is remembered for controversially splitting the Labor party over the issue of mandatory conscription and having the public throw an egg at him. Famously arguing with US President Woodrow Wilson by defending Australia’s post war reparation deal abroad and improvised by signing the Peace Treaty of Versailles with a diggers rising sun button. The challenge of this TVC was to capture this colourful life and historic subject matter within thirty seconds whilst making it entertaining but also being respectful to the era and people of the time. ‘Billy Hughes at War’ extends the strong visual brand style developed in the first four OPH ads by drawing on WW1 propaganda posters, and is a fun, quirky and engaging animated TVC, we hope will intrigue and inspire a large audience to attend the exhibition.

“Winning at WorldFest is a great testament to the hard work and dedication that our team continue to put in at Eye Candy day in day out, we love what we do and it really comes through in our work. We’ve also been lucky enough to have some pretty brave clients that let us push the boundaries”.

In total Eye Candy was awarded three of the highest category based awards with Platinum REMI award wins for its animated television commercials for the Old Parliament House which it worked in collaboration with ZOO Advertising, these included; A Platinum REMI award in the ’series/campaign’ category for all four Old Parliament House animated television commercials, a second Platinum REMI award for the ‘Talking Walls’ commercial in the ‘institutional identity’ category and a third Platinum REMI award in the ‘Low Budget’ category for the ‘Mrs Prime Minister’ exhibition commercial. Eye Candy also collected a Silver REMI award for the ‘Tertiary Open Day 2007′ ad which it collaborated on with CRE8IVE, a Silver REMI for ActewAGL Energy Shop’s ‘Heat & Ice Age’ ad which it collaborated on with Ken Buchan of ZOO Advertising, a Bronze REMI for local gym Club Lime’s calypso dancing ‘Gymmy’ commercial produced in conjunction with Bearcage and a Silver REMI for Eye Candy’s short film ‘The Bee’s Knees’.

The International Film Festival that is WorldFest, is the oldest Independent Film & Video Festival in the World. Founded 48 years ago as Cinema Arts, an International Film Society in August, 1961, WorldFest evolved into a competitive International Film Festival in April, 1968 and became the third most competitive international film festival in North America, following San Francisco and New York. WorldFest offers competition categories in TV Production, Documentary, Corporate & Business Films, Student & Experimental, TV Commercials, Film & Video Production, Music Videos, New Media (Interactive & Web Sites), Screenplays, Print and Radio. With more than 4,500 category entries received from 37 countries in 2007, WorldFest is the incorporation of 12 Major film & video competitions into one event. With 12 major competitions and the 200+ sub-categories, WorldFest gives out a lot of awards, but they are both earned and deserved. No awards are given in any category unless the scores from the juries are high enough to place for honours. Overall only 15-20% of the total category entries actually win an award at WorldFest.

Eye Candy previously won a Silver REMI award at the 2006 WorldFest for its work on the animated TVC which launched Canberra’s internet service provider, Grapevine. Check out our portfolio page to see our award winning work!

To launch ActewAGL’s new 25% off ‘Bundles’ discount we partnered with Grey WorldWide Canberra to produce a 30 second TVC to promote the new discounted offering to the Canberra region. Using custom built shaders we devised a style which gave an illustrative, fun and youthful feel to the TVC. The approach to sound design gave the impression that the main character had wandered up the side of a hill away from a carnival or sideshow. Blending this new visual style with the carnival like sound design enabled the straight forward retail message of ActewAGL’s 25% off “Bundles” promotion to be communicated in an entertaining and light-hearted way. The bonus is that there is nothing else quite like it on TV.

Through Australia’s largest game cinematic producer Plastic Wax, we were contracted to model and rig this SWAT character which was planned to be used in the “action-shoot’em-up” video game - Ronin Mercinary’s (later released as Kane & Lynch) by Eidos Interactive. In creating this SWAT character we were asked develop a cloth and hair pipeline for the SWAT and other characters. Kane & Lynch was eventually released onto the Xbox, PlayStation and PC platforms and sold over one million copies worldwide.

Eye Candy turned this funny 2D hippo comic character into a realistic 3D character that will be used as the seed to a feature length animated movie. Hairbutt the Hippo is a comic book series developed by Jason Paulos of Rat Race Comics and is the story of a nasty tempered and hygienically impaired hippopotamus who makes a living as a private detective feeding off the misfortunes and misadventures of hippies, magicians and mobsters. We created and rigged Hairbutt to look like he had just gotten off the beach and was taking a quick shower to wash the salt off, only to be surprised by one of the local crabs!

Eye Candy was contracted by Promotion Studios to turn their ‘Genie’ character design into a realistic 3D character for the 15th Asian Games which was held in Doha, Qatar and featured 46 disciplines and 39 events with 45 member nations competing. The opening and closing ceremonies were directed by David Atkins Enterprises with Spinifex Interactive producing the AV content in conjunction with Promotion Studios. Working with Promotions illustrations we created and rigged the ‘Genie’ character which was eventually displayed during the opening ceremony on the largest ever, custom-designed LED screen (approx 100 meters). The unforgettable ceremony was viewed by over 100,000 people at the stadium ground and captivated over 3 billion viewers across the world in the greatest spectacle that Asia has ever seen.

After the success of the Warner Bros’ supernatural film Constantine, developer Bits Studios teamed up with publisher THQ to create an “action-shoot-’em-up” video game adaption which followed the movie’ plot and character design. Through Australia’s largest game cinematic producer Plastic Wax, we were contracted to model and rig this demonic character which appeared in the film and was used in cinematic scenes throughout the game. This demon character was created using images of the maquette used in the film as reference. Eye Candy also developed cloth and hair for the cinematic. The highly successful game was launched onto Xbox, PlayStation, PC and eventually a mobile version was also created.

The international awards, which are the only ones of their kind in Australia, highlight excellence in animation and effects and have entrants ranging from major motion picture studios to student work. Other companies shortlisted alongside Eye Candy include MPC (of “Batman Begins”, “Harry Potter” and “Da Vinci Code”) and The Lab (of “Dirty Deeds”, “Fat Pizza” and “McLeods Daughters”)

Working collaboratively with Bearcage Productions, the task for the Club Lime commercial was to design an animated character that would reflect the fun, energetic and easy going nature of the Club Lime brand. From this Gymmy, (pronounced Jimmy with a Jamaican accent) was born and has become the hero character of the Club Lime brand and television commercial.

The second finalist listing for this years AEFA awards was for Eye Candy’s short film, The Bees Knees. The story revolves around a young boy and his dog as they set off on an afternoon adventure in the countryside and find themselves in some light-hearted mischief when they come across a buzzing bee. The style of the animation uses very bright colours, characters made up of simple shapes and movements best described as silly to engage quickly with young children.

Checkout the portfolio page of our website to see the full version of ”The Bees Knees” and our Jamaican gym instructor, Gymmy from the Club Lime commercial. To view the full list of 2007 AEAF Award winners, click here.

Bearcage productions was commissioned to produce an interstitial series for Foxtel known as ‘Icons – Our heroes. Our Stories’. The series told the stories of famous Australian’s, from Barry Crocker to Christine Anu and many more.
Working in partnership with Bearcage, Eye Candy produced the opening animated title sequence. Our artists created a landscape comprised of 3D text elements and Australian landmarks as the background, with sweeping camera moves carrying the viewer in and around the real Australian icons – our heroes.

In collaboration with ZOO Advertising, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for leading Canberra hardware store Magnet Mart. Each 15 second TVC formed part of Magnet Mart’s new ‘Start Smart’ advertising campaign with each of the four 15 second spots describing a unique benefit of Magnet Mart’s expert service and advice. So if you’ve got a favourite colour that you want to paint your house with, maybe it’s the same as your child hood teddy bear? Well now you can match it at Magnet Mart!

Check out the other Magnet Mart TVCs:

– How-to Workshops
– Quality Help
– Wood/Cutting Saw

In collaboration with ZOO Advertising, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for leading Canberra hardware store Magnet Mart. Each 15 second TVC formed part of Magnet Mart’s new ‘Start Smart’ advertising campaign with each of the four 15 second spots describing a unique benefit of Magnet Mart’s expert service and advice. So if you’re looking for the largest range of timber and need it cut to precision, then Start Smart at Magnet Mart!

Check out the other Magnet Mart TVCs:

– How-to Workshops
– Quality Help
– Favourite Colour

In collaboration with ZOO Advertising, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for leading Canberra hardware store Magnet Mart. Each 15 second TVC formed part of Magnet Mart’s new ‘Start Smart’ advertising campaign with each of the four 15 second spots describing a unique benefit of Magnet Mart’s expert service and advice. So if you’re looking for the Good, Better and Best of hardware products and services, Start Smart at Magnet Mart!

Check out the other Magnet Mart TVCs:

– How-to Workshops
– Wood/Cutting Saw
– Favourite Colour

In collaboration with Zoo Advertising, Eye Candy produced a series of 15 second TVC’s for leading Canberra hardware store Magnet Mart. Each 15 second TVC formed part of Magnet Mart’s new ‘Start Smart’ advertising campaign with each of the four 15 second spots describing a unique benefit of Magnet Mart’s expert service and advice. So if you have a leaky tap or cistern why not Start Smart and get on down to Magnet Mart!

Check out the other Magnet Mart TVCs:

– Quality Help
– Wood/Cutting Saw
– Favourite Colour

Using 3D animated shadow puppets to convey various course areas, this TVC concept for CIT was created with the aim of reaching, engaging and entertaining a wide range of people, from first time workers, those seeking a career change or advancement, or those looking to re-enter the workforce after a break.
Due to the requirement to get this TVC completed and on air before the New Year enrolment period started, our artists pulled all stops and completed this fully animated 30 second TVC within an extremely quick 3 week period.

Like a friendly haunted house this ad takes a tour through the Old Parliament House (OPH) revealing all the characters, history and secrets the house has to offer. Once inside the realm of OPH as conceived and written and by Ken Buchan of ZOO Advertising, you find yourself in Kings Hall surrounded by the portraits of all the past Prime Ministers and the statue of King George, who has a slight movement, tapping his bronze toe much to the annoyance of a loitering journalist’s elbow as he tries to jot down notes on his pad and paper.

We then move towards the portrait of Bob Hawke and magically the oil painting gives a faint smile and subtle wink. Our view sweeps around from a distance to the other portraits and notice that they all have this subtle movement. You see a young Queen Elizabeth II walk past as the gaze from the portraits follows her.

On approach to the opening of the House of Reps you begin to hear passionate voices of past debates from key moments in history. Real samples of audio from the House of Reps during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were included in this scene. Creative director Rachael Johnson says “I love to create things that engage a viewer and these subtle little additions really help to do that.”

Many prominent political figures can be seen through out this commercial including the longest serving Labour PM Hawke vigorously arguing with the longest serving Liberal PM Menzies. As the camera travels through an ornate vent and races down a corridor it passes a security officer who leaps up from his seat after us, as we reach a closed door that reads Prime Minister’s Office. The commercial ends as we tantalisingly travel through a fish eye lens leading into the PM’s office.

Animator Drew Kennewell who modelled the security guards leap and chase movements said “it was great to also be able to learn so much about this iconic piece of Australian history, it really is one of those places that you just need to stand still in for awhile to take it all in.” Produced in conjunction with OPH’s graphic design provider ZOO Advertising over a period of 2 months, the commercial will go to air on 9 September 2007 and run for a period of 2 years, as part of campaign to increase awareness that OPH is open and there are continually new attractions for visitors to experience. Marketing and Communications Manager, Nicolle Keyes says staff and volunteers of OPH have embraced the brand and television commercial “Everyone loves the ad!!!! They all feel proud to be a part of OPH because of the ad. Thanks again for such a great job!!!!” For more information on OPH you can visit www.oph.gov.au

This is the fourth in a series of highly successful television commercials for Canberra’s Old Parliament House (OPH) and is part of a campaign to increase awareness of the new attractions for visitors to experience.

Like a friendly haunted house this ad takes a tour through OPH revealing all the characters, history and secrets the house has to offer from the Kings Hall where you’re surrounded by the portraits of all the past Prime Ministers, to the House of Reps where you hear the passionate voices of past debates from key moments in history including Hawke vigorously arguing with Menzies. The commercial ends peering tantalisingly through a fish eye lens into the PM’s office.

With his best pal by his side, a young boy and his dog set off on an afternoon adventure in the countryside instead of finishing their chores. In true ‘Huck Finn’ style the pair immediately find themselves in some light-hearted mischief when they come across a buzzing bee. One thing leads to another and the next the bee knows, he’s lost his bumblebee pants and is left very much as one with nature.

Sound design plays a large and important part of this short film to tell the story as the lead characters have very little dialogue. The style of the animation uses very bright colours, characters made up of simple shapes and movements best described as silly to engage quickly with young children.

With an incredibly tight turnaround of just two weeks until the commercial was to go to air, the University looked to Eye Candy for a solution that could be produced within the timeframes to promote its open day.

‘Bruce’ is shown hurdling his way through life at university, experiencing all the challenges of study and social life, graduating and landing a well paid job in the end. A clever technical solution was created by our Senior Animators to create a looping environment with the addition of assets coming in and out of the scene. The design team kept working on the assets well into the animation phase and literally dropped them into the scene as they were completed.

For a second year a simple concept and character named ‘TOD’ has helped build awareness with a very hard-to-reach target audience. Encouraging school leavers, mature age and graduate students from across Australia to attend the Canberra Tertiary Open Day, which is a collaboration between Canberra’s five tertiary institutions (CIT, ADFA, ANU, UC and ACU).

TOD is a neutral, ageless and genderless character, designed to represent anyone interested in attending university. TOD has varied interests and is seen performing different activities and juggling items he might need. His activities communicate the key message ‘every thing you need in just one day’.

In the new distinctive style we had devised and for which the client had now become famous, we created an animated TVC for the exhibition that reveals the powerful and poignant story of what life was like for Australians during one of the most challenging periods in our history.

Comprehensive research into the history, events, clothing, objects and architecture of Australia at the time as well as the personal letters, diaries, depression-crafted objects and photographs that featured in the exhibition blended together to create a richly evocative and uplifting snapshot of Australia in tough times.

How do you fashion a Jamaican character, teaching him to dance properly and just be cool? You spend a lot of time drinking Jamaican rum and dancing terribly in front of a mirror while the rest of the studio laughs aloud at you.

While the process was a little bit more sophisticated than the ‘dancing in front of a mirror’, the essence of the character design and actions came from the motivations an easy going but energetic Jamaican gym instructor would have. With this Gymmy, (pronounced Jimmy with a Jamaican accent) was born and has become the hero character of the Club Lime brand and television commercials.

How do you capture the dresses, accessories, trophies, sceptres, sparkling tiara and crown that over many decades used to add up to our idea of the ideal Australian woman?

You call upon your 3D animation experience in creating cloth and hair assets for high-end game cinematics. We meticulously designed four separate sets of costumes, hairstyles and body shapes to take the character through four eras of Miss Australia. The costumes feature highly realistic cloth simulations that move naturally with the animated characters’ body movements. She’s never looked lovelier.

This stylised, contemporary, graphic animation launched TransACT’s new ISP, Grapevine.

Entirely computer-generated, this one-shot, fluid animation projects zooming particles to create the Grapevine logo and denote the blistering speed and large download capacity of the product. Complex stuff like a volumetrically lit, translucent shader was used to achieve the look of the liquid-like particles that was both simple in design and rich in appearance. Fast, juicy and at the time the sharp end of cutting edge.

We developed a new style for this client using a full 3D environment and animation to achieve sharp cut through in a very crowded retail advertising landscape.

Set in the Stone Age and featuring prehistoric characters that struggle against the elements, the ads live the script line - “Mankind has always been at the mercy of the weather, but the way we cope with it doesn’t have to stay primitive.”

We constructed a 30 second animatic that allowed an efficient cutdown to 3 different 15 second versions along with a set of assets that could be transferred to both hot and cold environments, saving the client time and money. Fun, funky and unlike anything else on the box at the time.

This project required recreating the cramped, squalid and frenetic character of the offices, corridors and gallery from where Australia’s major political events, scandals, leaks and scoops were reported. In that place nothing was sacred.

Based on the distinctive new style we created for the client’s previous exhibition, we used the extensive photography and drawings made on our site tour of the location, as well as historical materials to create an animated TVC that was as cheeky, pacey and vividly reminiscent of the era.

For this entertaining and insightful exhibition we created a blended graphic and visual style described as “Desperate Housewives meets Dame Pattie Menzies”. Historic photos and exhibition imagery such as Lady Sonia McMahon’s infamous White House dress, romantic love letters from Joe and Enid Lyons and a Shanghai slingshot used by Pattie Menzies, were brought to life with engaging 3D animation and effects. 

Fast, fun and distinctive, the rich visual effect used an electronic montage of “cardboard cut-out” style assets that were then given added depth through the use of 3D animation and special post-production effects.

Stocks and Sergi will join forces again after recently completing a television commercial for the University of Canberra’s Open Day that helped achieve strong numbers for the event. Sergi who is well known in the Canberra community brought Eye Candy the opportunity to do a new television commercial for the Citizens Advice Bureau that will highlight the services programs.

The Citizens Advice Bureau has been serving the Canberra community for over 25 years, building on the rich heritage of Citizens Advice Bureaus (CAB) going back to 1939. The CAB believe that community services and facilities are only as effective as people’s access to them and therefore it is essential that people are made aware of their options, rights and responsibilities when needing to access the services available.

Stocks says “being part of the community is about supporting the community when it needs it, if Eye Candy can help increase the profile of the CAB through this advertisement, it’s not only a good thing for the CAB, it’s a good thing for Eye Candy too.”

A simple, but effective concept using a combination of live footage, design and animation will see members of the community star in the commercial and reinforce the CAB’s key messages when production is finished.

Michael Sergi lectures in film and television production at the University of Canberra. As a freelance television director Sergi worked for over 15 years in Australia and New Zealand, and directed many well-known television dramas, such as Home & Away, Neighbours, Shortland Street, Pacific Drive and Breakers. Sergi was a co-founder and the artistic director of the Canberra International Film Festival, now in its eight year. He was also a founding member of the ACT Film and Television Council, and is currently Vice-Chair.

Pro Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) Professor Deborah Ralston said the ad was all about the consistent message the University was trying to send to students. “That is, come to the University of Canberra and you’ll have a great experience – but also be ready for your career from the day you graduate,” Professor Ralston said.

Creative Director Rachael Johnson executed this concept using a character called ‘Bruce’ who is a new student at the university. He is shown hurdling his way through life at university, experiencing all the challenges of study and social life, but when the pressure comes on at the end, he handles his exams, graduating and landing a well paid job.

Eye Candy worked with director Michael Sergi, a film and television lecturer at the University who actually taught some Eye Candy staff many years ago. Mr Sergi said staff and students at the University who had seen a preview had found the ad “imaginative, real and funny”.

The style of the commercial was to have a slightly stylised cartoon look for the visuals, a strong music track and a strong audio effects track. A clever technical solution was created by our Senior Animators to create a looping environment that would allow the background and the track to be developed quickly once and then keep looping with the addition of assets coming in and out of the scene. This allowed the animation component of the project to be started much earlier and have the design team keep working on the assets well into the animation phase and literally drop them into the scene as they were being finished.

“It has cut-through and better still, it directly conveys to young people how exciting and enriching university life can be,” Mr Sergi said. “We sometimes forget to tell people that.”

All of Eye Candy’s systems and processes were thoroughly tested on this project along with our team, many of who stayed bunkered down in the studio for 10 days and nights to meet the tough deadline the client was faced with.

“The University needed leading, professional filmmakers to produce this ad… The production values and animation quality are extremely high for a relatively low-budget production. I have no doubt it will be among some of the best work on prime time television.” Professor Ralston said.

Eye Candy’s eight person team on these projects were lead by creative directors Rachael Johnson and Damian Stocks. Rachael Johnson says Eye Candy’s recent success has been a result of “working with some courageous clients who were prepared to back the idea’s of our creative team and allow us to try some new things that hadn’t been done before”.

Nicolle Keyes the Marketing Manager of Old Parliament House agrees and says, “I think we have a great partnership between OPH, ZOO Advertising and Eye Candy going and I look forward to winning many more awards with it.”

To produce award-winning work Rachael says “my Co-Creative Director, Damian Stocks and I have spent a lot of time finding and developing our team so that we have a good mix of talented generalists each with one or two specialty niche skills. This sort of diversity has become a real strength for us in Canberra and with the recognition of our work nationally and overseas”.

Damian Stocks says, “we’ve been able to do some great work we’re really proud of lately with renown Creative Director Ken Buchan, who is working in Canberra now for ZOO Advertising. He’s been able to push our guys creatively and at the same time support us in getting there.”

“Over the last 12 months we’ve also spent a lot of time in refining our internal systems and processes to better manage our business, people and deliverables for our projects. This has meant our clients have been able to get the maximum value from their investment with us and we’ve been able to concentrate on doing great work for them.”

The awards celebrate excellence in design and communication in the museum and collections sector across Australia. “There were some fantastic entries from prominent cultural institutions throughout Australia… so winning a “Highly Commended Award” for these two ads under a multimedia category was a great achievement for us” Nicolle stated.

“Having Matt join our management team allows Rachael and I to concentrate on doing great creative work for our clients without having to worry about running the business also. Over the last 12 months we’ve spent a lot of time in refining our internal systems and processes to better manage our business, people and deliverables for our projects. Matt will have a key role in this going forward and our clients will be able to get the maximum value from their investment with us.” Founding partner and Creative Director Damian Stocks says.

Matt’s strengths are in managing client relationships, agency and production processes, strategic communication marketing and brand management. He was instrumental in the development of LDA’s flagship campaigns for Wells Station, Ginninderra Ridge, Kingston Foreshore, Gungahlin Town Centre, Hillside, Bridgewater, Jenolan House, Brindabellas Bonython, First Edition, Kingston Foreshore, Metros, the Corporate brand and a number of commercial releases including Epicentre at Fyshwick. LDA had excellent results with their brand awareness and sales campaigns with demand for products far exceeding supply. LDA attributed most of this outstanding success to ZOO’s marketing campaigns.

Over three and half years at ZOO he also managed a number of key projects for Australian Pharmacy Group, Goodwin Aged Care Services, Snowy Hydro South Care helicopter, Defence Housing Australia, SupaBarn, Woden Plaza, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Defence – Environment & Heritage, Department of Immigration Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs, Magnet Mart, Academy Nightclub and Lease Plan.

“Matt has been with us over 3 years and has done a superb job in managing a number of clients, notably LDA who he has helped nurture & grow since day one… It is with a sense of sadness I announce that he is stepping away from his current role and into a new and exciting challenge with Eye Candy.” ZOO Partner and Client Service Director, Ashley Morgan said.

Matt holds a Bachelor of Communications and a Masters Degree in Marketing Communication. Prior to ZOO, Matt worked for five years on a range of communication projects for high profile organisations including BBC London, the NRL, Foster’s Group, Perisher Blue Ski Resort, Fox Sports, the PGA Tour and Centrelink. He will commence with Eye Candy in a transitional capacity in March before taking up his role full time in April.

The magazine placed Eye Candy in the same company as, and we quote … “El Ranchito from Madrid and their beautiful new work for Honda, Motion Logix from Beijing and their kinetic new take on basketball kicks, Ruff Mercy and Blac Ionica from London and their new broadcast design clips, and Bug from Norway with their fabulous exploding lemmings.”

The brief to Eye Candy from Old Parliament House and ZOO’s Creative Director was basically ‘A day in the life of a Press Gallery journalist’ to show how journalists back then had closer access to politicians than they do now at the new Parliament House. They had a love-hate relationship with politicians because they would use any means possible to report the news, through leaks, scoops and ultimately scandals. They all worked in incredibly close quarters upstairs behind the House of Reps, they stalked the corridors and often listened in on secret discussions through air vents and even in the toilets - nothing was sacred! And of course their deadlines were never ending and hectic.

The visual style of the first television advertisement, ‘Mrs Prime Minister’ was embraced with the unique electronic montage of cardboard cut-out like assets. These were created using material sources from the corridors, press rooms and journalists through out the last century. The visual style was again given added depth through the use of 3D animation and special post production effects including computer generated smoke, global illumination and 3D motion blur.

The team are brilliant, instinctive and incredibly thorough, they took extensive photographs of objects that are unique to Old Parliament House; such as the red and green lights that signal which house is in session. They painstakingly cut out different members of the Press Gallery from old ‘annual classroom style’ photographs and created bodies for them as well as recreating each and every room in the Gallery and the House of Reps to perfection. Their interpretation of the script was spot on and the typewriter scenario was art directed overnight on one or two occasions, showing a commitment to the job that is exceptional. You guys are great and thank heavens you are in Canberra.” - Ken Buchan, Creative Director, ZOO Advertising.

Thanks for the kind words Ken, (the bottle of scotch is on its way over now as promised.)

The international awards, which are the only ones of their kind in Australia, highlight excellence in animation and effects and have entrants ranging from major motion picture studios to student work.

Other companies shortlisted alongside Eye Candy include the Oscar and BAFTA winning Animal Logic (of “Lord of the Rings”, “Matrix” and “Moulin Rouge”); Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy award winning, Framestore (of “Walking with Dinosaurs” and “Harry Potter”); and Digital Pictures/Iloura (of “Holden Monaro - Game Over” and “Visa Piggybank” TVC’s).

The task was to design an animated television commercial following the newly created brand, using mood frames supplied by ZOO’s graphic designers.

The solution was a completely computer generated advertisement that features the particles that make up the logo zooming around denoting the blistering speed and large download capacity of Grapevine. One of the technical challenges was the production of the unique ‘one shot’ fluid animation in a visual style similar to a ‘zero-g liquid jelly’. Gravity was applied the various elements to make it look more realistic and provided flexibility to automate the fluid movement. A secondary animation control was layered over this to give a subtle overshoot of secondary motion.

The final render of the animation consisted of a volumetrically lit translucent shader to achieve a mix between jelly and mercury, creating a look to the globs that was both simplistic in design yet rich in appearance.

2007 – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Museums Australia Multimedia and Publication Design Awards - Multimedia