Lee Stewart of Sterrett Dymond Stewart Advertising in Charlotte, NC chose Buzzco Associates to create a :30 second spot for AnMed Health Care, the state-of-the-art heart health care facility. He created print and billboard ads featuring a man carrying a big heart precariously balanced over giant lettering saying "Don't Trust Your Heart to Anyone Else," Lee saw this riveting image as a natural segue into broadcast. From prior experience, he knew that Buzzco were the folks to translate illustrator Paul Zwolak's painterly design into animation.
Co-creative directors, Lee Stewart and Russ Dymond, explained they saw their "Everyman" as a silent movie star like Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd, carrying his very valuable cargo over a precarious landscape of type and they'd like the type to interact with his footsteps. Ideally, they'd like their character to portray vulnerability but capable to complete his task successfully.
Our challenge was to translate the strikingly stark print campaign for broadcast. They wanted a bright white background, with sharp black type, a painterly character carrying a big red heart panning across the TV screen to match the print ad.
Unfortunately, video doesn't like high contrast verticals panning across the screen, thin horizontals or highly saturated reds that tend to bleed, especially over white. I made several models to soften the background, bevel the type's edges and added a soft drop shadow that not only solved those problems, but also added to the three-dimensionality. As for the painterly feeling, we used a combination of Photoshop and Painter to achieve a handmade look. Actually I like to think of this project as being the best of both worlds-- both traditional hand-drawn animation and the strengths of computer programs. Only a master animator like Vince could have elicited the pathos of our main character, but if we had to shoot this on film, it would have been a nightmare: a 5-foot long pan, animating type, a 20:1 zoom! But with the computer? A piece of cake!!
Agency: Sterrett Dymond Stewart Advertising
President: Theckla Sterrett
Co-creative directors, Lee Stewart and Russ Dymond
for Buzzco Associates, inc.
Directors: Candy Kugel and Vincent Cafarelli
Animator: Vincent Cafarelli
Additional design: Candy Kugel
Assistant: Rick Broas
Producer: Marilyn Kraemer
