Process:

I've always loved M&Ms live action commercials and having the opportunity to work on all these amazing spots was a dream come true!

These were the first commercials airing after the launch of characters' new looks. Read some articles: NBC, CNN, People.

My job was to complete the storyboards, illustrate all characters in 2D and animate them on the footage before the amazing 3D artists in House Special work their magic. It is a collaborative effort between the agency creatives, editors, producers, and assistants to evolve the story and present it to the client before the finishing stage. This type of workflow, gave me a chance to get involved in the creative process which was an amazing experience!

Challenges:

I could not wait to start working on these spots! I was planning to fancy-draw all the characters and rig them appropriately as one should (duh!) The only challenge was that the turnaround for these projects was super fast. Sometimes I had to re-draw and animate the whole scene in 1 hour! And while I could re-use some drawings, I had to make small adjustments if not starting over in a live edit session. With the guidance of Patrick Lavin, P.S.260's art director, and Maury Loeb, our editor, I decided to plan realistically and not to expect a Disney-level of outcome from myself. I learned that it's ok to minimally animate rough drawings while paying attention to facial expressions and body language. That was what the agency was looking for after all!

Role: Illustrator, 2D Animator and graphics artist

Client: M&Ms

Agency: BBDO

Edit and Graphics: P.S.260

Editors: Maury Loeb (live action spots)

Ned Borgman (full-animation spots, release date TBD)

Finishing and 3D animation: House Special

Animating everything in 2D helps the director to make creative decisions. It utilizes editors to achieve the perfect cut before the 3D stage.

What did I do?

Revisions make it better!

Our team's job was to show the agency and the client all the possibilities. Sometimes you need to see it in action! Each of these spots was fully animated by me and edited by Maury Loeb!

Although these were not the finalized animations, It was important to show the emotions and facial expressions roughly in 2D for the director and editor and more importantly, for the client!

In addition to my 2D animation responsibilities, I helped the team with some VFX and graphics tasks as well.

We explored some fun ideas along the way.
Not all of them made it through, but it was worth trying!

Yellow rocking a fake mustache for the Hispanic version was one of my favorites!

This is our tracked tattoo on the hero's face as an alpha on a black background.

VFX

Orange talks!

What if Red talks?

How about Green?

Brown?

Oh Brown works perfectly !

What if we move Red?

Decisions, Decisions !

We presented multiple options for the end card and landed on this super fun version!

swapping Orange with one of the characters

Red standing on the right side

Red standing on the left side+Green standing in the front row

swapping Brown and Red

Red talks

Nah, Brown should talk

ENJOYING THE PROCESS!

Meet the parents

Jacques