For the second year in a row, Framestore CFC won the award for Best Animation at the Midsummer Awards, held this year on 6th July at a gala ceremony at the Hurlingham Club, Chelsea. This year it was the company’s astonishing work on Lux Neon Girl that cleaned up.

Neon Girl is an all CG spot for Shine soap from Lux. Created by Buenos Aires based agency Santo initially for the Argentinean market, the 60-second spot was directed by Daniel Kleinman for Rattling Stick.

The spot tells of a woman’s bad day, redeemed by a healing Lux bath. But the remarkable thing is that it tells its story via the most complex neon sign you’ve ever seen, one that creates an entire, rich narrative by switching lights on and off in sequence. Characters, action and environments – all CG neon bulbs, all precisely placed on an intricate virtual hoarding. It made its television debut in May 2007 and was immediately acclaimed for its adventurous approach and immaculate execution.

Dale Newton, Senior Animator and Production Designer on Neon Girl, accepted the award on behalf of the 3D Commercials team and company. “This was a major project for us, in particular because of the contribution we made to the production design,” he said afterwards, “I’m very proud of the way we were able to respond to the creative challenges. It didn’t feel like an animation project, more like a film making project.”

Also attending the awards from Framestore CFC were Deputy Managing Director, Commercials, Lottie Cooper, Colourist Steffan Perry, Inferno Artist Paul O’Brien and Fire Operator Matt Clarke.

This was the fourteenth Midsummer Awards, an event that has become the high point of London’s advertising social calendar. Founded in 1993 by Paul Cover and Terry Howard with the aim of promoting excellence in creative work in the specific area of film and television, and judged solely by working creatives, the Midsummer Awards are an opportunity for the top creative names in the industry to gather and celebrate the joys of the English summer.

CREDITS
Lux (Shine) ‘Neon Girl’
Client Unilever
Agency Santo
General Creative Directors Maximiliano Anselmo / Sebastian Wilhelm
Copywriters Matias Ballada / Sebastian Wilhelm
Art Director Maximiliano Anselmo
Head of Production Facundo Perez
Agency Producers Andres Salmoyraghi
Production Company Rattling Stick
Director Daniel Kleinman
Executive Production Johnnie Frankel

For Framestore CFC
Production Design Dale Newton
Design Sylvain Marc
Animators Dale Newton, Sylvain Marc
Additional Animation Florent de La Taille
Senior Technical Director Diarmid Harrison-Murray
Technical Directors Guillame Fradin, David Mellor
Junior Technical Director Paul Jones
Modelling Mary Swinnerton
Snr Compositing Artist Tim Osborne
Producer Scott Griffin