“Inside the Trap” and “Trapping Kaos” Highlight Latest Installment of Activision’s Popular, Award-Winning Skylanders® Franchise
| Culver City, CA (Oct. 16, 2014) — The characters and world of Skylanders received the
Blur Studio treatment in two new :30 commercials produced by critically-acclaimed ad agency 72andSunny for Activision. With CG sequences helmed by Blur's Oscar-nominated director Jeff Fowler, "Inside the Trap" and "Trapping Kaos" feature an exciting new visual scope to bring Blur's special brand of high-octane storytelling to the imaginative world of Skylanders.
Noted 72andSunny Creative Director Tim Wolfe, “Both Blur and 72andSunny are built around collaborative cultures so we were all quick to jump in together, start laughing and shape where we wanted the project to go from the outset. It made for amazing sessions where everyone had a voice, egos were left at the door and we were all only interested in making the best video humanly possible.” “Working with a tough little veggie warrior and a powerful super-dwarf armed with TraptaniumTM-infused hammers spurred our creative energy to create something like none other. We had a blast bringing a little mayhem to the world of Skylanders where we built a village and staged a cinematic battle scene between Gulper and Food Fight,” explained Fowler. Added freelance Creative Director Michael Bryce, “The Skylanders brand is built on the idea of ‘bringing toys to life.’ Working with Blur gave us an entirely new way to look at the characters and what they were capable of.” Familiar with Blur's 20-year experience in high-end CG entertainment, 72andSunny enlisted the studio to bring their cinematic chops to the enormously popular franchise’s CG characters and environments for this new campaign. Fowler and his team of 30 artists completed CG material for both spots in less than two months. “The level of visual detail and character development Blur brought to the project was incredible. They took an already rich and fun world of Skylanders and turned up the volume helping us make something truly unique and ground-breaking for the category,” said Wolfe. “We were excited to get the call from 72andSunny. They're responsible for some of the most iconic and memorable commercial campaigns in recent years and we're big fans,” Fowler concluded. For more on Skylanders Trap Team, visit: http://www.skylanders.com . About Blur Studio Blur Studio is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated production studio based in Culver City, California. Founded in 1995, the company provides award-winning animation, effects and design for a wide range of media – short films, large format films, commercials, concept art, feature effects, music videos, game cinematics and broadcast design. Notable clients include ABC, Disney, Marvel, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., CBS, Microsoft, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Activision, Nickelodeon, FOX Sports and EA, among others. For more information, please visit www.blur.com. © 2014 Activision Publishing, Inc. SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM and TRAPTANIUM are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. # # # # CREDITS Blur CG/Animation Director: Jeff Fowler Creative Director: Tim Miller CG Supervisor: Chris Bedrosian Animation Supervisor: Hubert Daniel FX Supervisor: Brandon Riza Producer: Laura Pepper Executive Producer: Al Shier Layout Supervisor: Aristomenis Tsirbas Layout: Hubert Daniel, Isaac Fernandez Character Modeling Lead: Jesse Sandifer Character Modeling: Hasan Bajramovic, Daniel Garcia, Victor Hugo, Daniel Kho, Clay Osmus, Gun Park, Juan Solis, Tom Tran, David Munoz Velazquez Rigging Supervisor: Jeremie Passerin Rigging Lead: Joshua Cogswell Rigging TD: Tyler Fox Rigging: Ben Durkin, Tyler Fox, Gerry Hsu, Daniel Kole, Travis Miller, Michael Swann Animation: Ben Cinelli, Isaac Fernandez, Yvain Gnabro, Jason Hendrich, Oliver Parcasio Hair and Cloth: Justin Callanan, Adam Dorner, Jon Jordan, Mark Lipsmeyer, Luis Lopez, James Marcus, Lennon Montejo, Yury Sakovich, Danny Young Environment Modeling: Simon Blanc, Eric Durante, Jinho Jang, Ramon Lopez Lighting and Compositing Lead: Simon Blanc Lighting and Compositing: Eric Durante, Jason Madsen FX: Joe Coleman, Sasmit Ranadive, John Schratz Technical and QC: Joshua Cogswell, Tyler Fox, Jon Jordan, Luis Lopez, Jeremie Passerin, Danny Young Concept Design: Sean McNally, Joshua Shaw, Kyle Shockley, Chuck Wojtkiewicz, Tom Zhao Production Coordinator: Chris Youngless Production Assistant: Amanda Powell Pipeline Supervisor: Jeffrey Beeland Pipeline: Brendan Abel, Mike Hendricks, Stephen Lu Programming and Systems Administration: Duane Powell, Jeremy Donahue, Paul Huang, Matt Newell, Perry Randall Activision Chief Executive Officer: Eric Hirshberg Chief Marketing Officer: Tim Ellis SVP of Consumer Marketing: John Coyne Director of Consumer Marketing: Hjalmar Hedman Manager, Consumer Marketing: Eneida Mejia 72andSunny Partner, Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole Executive Creative Director: Frank Hahn Creative Director/Writer: Tim Wolfe Creative Director/Designer: Peter Vattanatham Creative Director: Michael Bryce Senior Designer: Travis Swingler Junior Writer: Taylor Black Junior Designer: MyTran Dang Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald Executive Producer: Dan Ruth Film Producer: Kara Fromhart Group Director Business Affairs: Amy Jacobsen Business Affairs Manager: Kelly Ventrelli Business Affairs Coordinator: Amy Shah Group Brand Director: Mike Parseghian Senior Brand Manager: Torie Gleicher Brand Manager: Tashi Oszvald Brand Coordinator: Erica Goitia Group Strategy Director: Bryan Smith Strategy Director: John Graham Senior Strategist: Daniel Teng 72 Studio Chief Production Officer: Tom Dunlap Director: Benjamin Davis Content Producer: Jonny Edwards Line Producer: Dina Oberley Editor: Jason Lewis Editor: Billy Sacdalan Post Producer: Benjamin Bragg MPC Executive Producer: Elexis Stern Producer: Abisayo Adejare VFX Artist: Benjamin Davis Music & Sound Design Human Worldwide Composer: Gareth Williams Producer: Jonathan Sandford Sound Mix Lime Studios Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan Engineer: Zac Fisher |