Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/54443
T est commercials have come a long way from the days when animation stands were used to shoot storyboards and the resulting quick-turnaround animatics were presented to focus groups to determine which concepts would best grab viewers' attention as full-fledged spots. Today, test commercials are created in an array of sophisticated styles and executions, although multiple con- cepts still duke it out to see which will emerge with a shot at full-up production. ANIMATED STORYBOARDS About a decade ago, New York City-based Animated Story- boards (www.animatedstoryboards.com) introduced Flash anima- tion to the testing process. "We were one of the first to start animating the animatics, which traditionally had been put together by editors," says Dan Pack, the company's director of global mar- yesterday." Local directors and producers helm a test campaign but animators around the world share mocap files stored on a Mira server to create the 3D cinematics. "We can pass work to any studio with no downtime," Pack emphasizes. The only draw- back: "We haven't slept in 10 years," he quips. The company has handled test spots globally for such major brands as Anheuser- Busch, Colgate and Kellogg. Animated Storyboards has "developed a lot of proprietary automation tools for character animation, liquid simulation, ren- dering, lighting," says Pack. "Our office in Tel Aviv has proven itself to be very good at developing all kinds of tools an animation company needs." About 10 percent of Animated Storyboards' business is creating spots for online or broadcast, according to Krausz. "The online world needs more and more commercials done for lower budgets, so that brings them to companies like ours for final work that's fully keting and a former producer at Grey Advertising. "Until then, animatics could be jarring and confusing with many dissolves and transitions — it was hard to visualize the content in some parts. By having all the illustrations and animations done in Flash, you could better focus on telling the story." Since that time CEO Ezra Krausz has added a "broad range of options" to Animated Storyboards' offerings, providing a full-ser- vice approach to test spots from casting to audio post. In-house directors are on board from the beginning of the process. "A lot of clients value the fact that we're able to create an entire com- mercial within the span of two weeks," says Pack. Especially since test spots have "become so much more sophisticated and closer and closer to the end product," adds Krausz. He believes that "brands are testing more than they ever have — it's all about not throwing your money away. Large brands can compare successful campaigns with test spots and see if there's a correlation." In the last two years test commercials featuring 3D cinematics have comprised the lion's share of the company's work. Animated Storyboards has five motion-capture systems in its offices around the world; data collected on mocap stages is applied to fully 3D-rigged characters. "Working in 3D eliminates all the traditional restrictions of animatics: You can change characters and camera angles" as the testing process evolves, says Pack. Krausz concurs. "It's a relatively easy medium to revise compared to hand-animated 3D," he says. He also notes that with offices in New York, Bangkok, Tel Aviv, London and Sao Paolo, Animated Storyboards can "follow the sun to feed the agency world, where everything needs to be done Animated Storyboards, with offices worldwide, often relies on mocap. Their New York (left) and London studios are pictured. animated, has a lot of life to it, is good looking and conveys the message. We're also bringing test spots closer to broadcast: If people aren't crossing that line now, they will be soon." The company has spawned a division called Demolition, which takes 3D demo sequences developed for test spots to the next level for broadcast. "People often think test spots are disposable productions, but Demolition creates assets in 3D that don't have to be recreated for broadcast or other final platforms," says Pack. THE NAPOLEON GROUP New York City's venerable The Napoleon Group (www. napny.com) has seen test spots "change exponentially" in terms of sophistication and styles of execution, says VP/creative direc- tor Ken Kresge, a former editor at McCann-Erickson. "Given the state of the economy, people are taking testing a lot more seriously than they used to. Years ago juniors and assistants worked on test spots at agencies; now you see more people at a senior level working on them" as testing plays an increasingly important role in the decisions major brands make about their advertising dollars. The Napoleon Group partners with agencies in the early stages of an ad campaign to work though creative ideas. "Some come with boards and scripts while others have only a scribble of an idea," says Kresge. "It's up to us to make sure the concept is cultivated from the beginning, that we choose the right style for www.postmagazine.com Post • February 2012 29