Prologue - Gravity

Prologue
Once Upon a Time, in a land not far away, McCann Erickson
walked into Gravity with director Uri Shizer and production
company Rabel, and began describing the mystical world they
wanted to create for children’s dessert Yoplait “Shtoozim”.
It was childish, it was juvenile, it was brilliant!
We at Gravity were awed, and immediately fell into the
colorful, whimsical fantasy of the fun flavored dairy dessert
we just wanted to eat up!
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Parle Vu Shtoozim?
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Yoplait’s dessert’s name “Shtoozim” is
a creative combination of the Hebrew words “Nonsense”
and “Rhymes”. This combination inspired a fantasy world where
silly rhymes are serious business, and fun and play are the order of
the day.
We at Gravity loved the task of bringing to life Erickson and Shizer‘s
vision for “Shtoozim”.
Now let us dazzle you, as we take you through the fascinating
development process of the Design & CG work of the Shtoozim
world.
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Part 1:
A WORLD OF PARER
COMES TO LIFE
We began work by researching how paper behaves.
We spread out sheets of paper, all sorts of paper, lots and lots
of paper! Then we felt it, sensed it, schmoozed it & continued
to play with it until finally we outlined two dimensional paper
figures of which we made a 3D model.
Thus began the Shtoozim world. And if you look closely and
reach out your hand you’ll be able to really feel the texture.
The first Shtoozim commercial aired late 2009
(Part 1 of this book), and the sequel in 2011 (Part 2).
Concept Art:
Kickoff
The brief from the agency and
the director’s treatment defined
the basic principals of the design:
The characters were to be created
using real children’s faces,
integrated with CG figures. Each
character was to portray a flavor
(peach, strawberry, blueberry
and vanilla), and the storyline
was to be based on independent
nonsensical episodes, which
are literal CG illustrations of
the funny rhyming soundtrack.
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Concept Art:
Paper Textures and Title Design
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Concept Art:
Early Sketches
As you can see, the first sketch
of the characters “boxed” the
kids into the flavor. But in the
spirit of the weightlessness of
the paper world, the strawberry
astronaut sent us back to the
drawing board to continue our
research.
What you see here is the
development process of the
characters as we tried to get
it just right.
I’m a peac
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I can’t
is
h
t
n
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v
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!
E
V
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GR
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Concept Art:
Approved Character Designs
SSttrraaw
wbbeerrrryy
n ill a
Ma
a
Va
A r m a dill a f r
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Finally we had a solution.
We created a paper body in CG
and each kid got a fruit hat
that was hard copy printed and
symbolized each flavor. The hats
were worn by the kids during
the photoshoot.
The result was elegant and just
right. The kids were free to play
and be mischievous creating
wonderfully natural, fun shots.
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m
I’ m
n il a
Pe a
ch
Blue I’m Mer
be
ry
to mrry, plea
Mr. S eet y sed
traw ou
berr
y
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Concept Art:
Narrator: The Squirrel
d of
l
r
o
A w NSE
E
NONS ch fun,
mu
o
is so boat int
my
I sail he SUN
t
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Concept Art:
Designing the Animals
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nch
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L
e
e
We are so sweet
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Background Design:
The Ski Slide
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I slip, I slide, I
ski, what a world
I see!
The Train Station
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Background Design:
Crocodile in the City
Fancy filming in a
fantasy world
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Background Design:
The Island
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Background Design:
Round & Round We Go
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Background Design:
Panoramic View
What is black and white in Maya, we
splashed with a little Photoshop color
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Part 2:
PUFFING UP
A PAPER WORLD
In 2011 Yoplait launched a new product - a whipped cream
dessert. For us it meant revisiting the existing Shtoozim world
and embracing a new leading motif: a world of fluff and puff.
Ready for the challenge we immediately whipped ourselves into
the project.
Turn the page to see the slim line “before” and the puffed up “after”.
The Whipping Castle
The Story
pity
p
i
h
w
A
witch
in a
put us
H
STITC
The fairytale begins with a mischievous whippity witch who
lives peacefully in whip-castle. Until one day she decides to be
naughty and whip up everything around her. Flying around
on her magical whip-stick, she stirs and she whips getting the
world in a stitch.
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The design of the witch was created by McCann Erickson
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Kids in a Frizz
Now
I
a shlook lik
eep! e
nny,
i
k
s
I’m sleek
I’m
See the progress on the children’s clothing as we played around attempting to convey a look
that was as light and airy as whipped cream. Our initial designs reminded us of Afro-like
munchkins that were being pulled to earth, rather than flying high in the sky.
We began focusing on selected elements of the kids’ garments, searching for various forms
of frizziness.
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PERMinent Makeover
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p,
o
o
y d day,
t
p
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Sho oopty perm
sh ot a y!
I g toda
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GiGi the Giraffe Got No Fluff
The “whipped” campaign was based
completly on 3d modeling
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Merry-Go-Round & Round & Round
Much like the children and the
animals, everything on the Shtoozim
set had to be fluffed, puffed and
whipped. Look carefully and you
will see that all objects in the
background emphasis the whisk’s
circular motion (the merry-goround, the windmill, the whip
castle and the witch’s whip-stick).
Other elements in the panorama
convey a sense of airiness and
lightness (the weeping willow,
the swing between the clouds
and the gushing fountain).
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Grand Finale
And so, the tale of the whippity witch comes to a sweet end,
as the Shtoozim world is saturated with tasty fluffy flavors.
While we don’t know what will happen next in the Shtoozim
world,be sure to join us for the funtastic ride!
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Epilog
Approaching this project we knew that in order to design the Shtoozim fantastical world for
both children and their parents - we needed to tap into our own childish state of mind.
Our inspiration came from other nonsensical worlds, such as the imaginative world of Dr.
Seuss and The Little Prince (so we drew him a sheep).
Big Rewards for a collective effort
THE END
The Shtoozim marketing campaign launched by McCann Erickson was an outstanding success
among children and parents, and won the agency the 2011 AME Silver award for building a
substantial market share for Yoplait Shtoozim: from 0 to 43% in the blink of an eye.
However, by far the most rewarding aspect of the work was the unprecedented public awareness,
as the commercials are declared time and again “most memorable and loved”, and children
hum the catchy tunes as they giggle and watch the fantastical world of Shtoozim.
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Credits
Client: Tnuva /Yoplait
Agency: McCann Erickson
Director: Uri Shizer
Production Company: Rabel
CG & VFX: Gravity
Chief Creative Officer for Gravity: Ilan Bouni
Head of Art & Design for Gravity: Israel Breslev
Head of 3D & Compositing: Yoav Savaryego
Music: Tomer Biran
Sound: Soundhouse
All book rights reserved by Gravity 2011
[email protected] , www.gravity.co.il
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