Award-winning Los Angelesvisual effects and design company A52 today detailed its design, animation and effects work on an innovative set of new :05 ads from advertising agency RPA for the all-new Honda Fit. The six spots ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® created to reflect the Fit subcompact size, and entitled ‘Appetite for Cargo,’ ‘Frisky Predator,’ ‘Nocturnal Flyer,’ ‘Werewolves Beware,’ ‘Speedy Demon’ and ‘Mucho Muscle’ ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® debuted on Apr. 20, and will continue airing during high-profile broadcast programming over the weeks ahead.

‘We’sve learned to rely on A52 as a partner in resolving visual challenges in ways that are truly extraordinary,’ explained Gary Paticoff, RPA executive producer. ‘Each of these :05 ads had a tall order to fill, and thanks to A52 work, each stands alone as a unique, fitting testament to Honda new Fit.’

RPA project associate creative director Curt Johnson provided more information on these spots. ‘For the Fit launch, we created a print/internet campaign showing one iconic-type character image (cartoon versions of a bat, a silver bullet, etc.) representing a unique feature of the Fit, followed by a picture of the car itself. For this key component of the campaign broadcast elements, we asked A52 to bring the print imagery to life in six five-second spots?‚àö√묨‚àÇ an attention-grabbing approach which creatively packages many of the ideas we wanted to convey about the Fit.’

To create each spot, A52 team worked closely with Johnson and his agency colleagues, including associate creative director Todd Carey, creative directors Joe Baratelli and David Smith, and producer Sabrina Shamma. A52 was instrumental in establishing the look and color-scheme for each spot, and in designing the animated backgrounds. The original ad illustrations were used for each spot initial image, and the techniques for animating each image varied from the use of traditional cell animation to digital animation using Adobe After Effects and/or Discreet Flame. The team of A52 CG supervisor Andy Hall provided CGI versions of the Fit, and each was lit to match the initial image before being composited into its animated background. Also, A52 lead Flame artist on the project, Kirk Balden, used Flame to re-create backgrounds for a more 3D feel (‘Nocturnal Flyer’ and ‘Speedy Demon’), to animate them (‘Mucho Muscle’) or simply to color-correct and vignette them for consistency.

‘This was actually a pretty straightforward job,’ Balden said. ‘We were able to seamlessly address client tweaks and manage the animation process from beginning to end. Having our staff geniuses in CG building amazing looking cars ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® onto which we could map any environment we wanted ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® saved us a lot of time and effort.’

A52 team also included executive producer Mark Tobin, producer Jenny Bright, designer Michael Brown and 3D animators Chris Janney and Kirk Shintani.

The end-tags for each of these spots were created by the team from bicoastal Stardust Studios. Each spot music was composed by Jimmy Haun of Elias Arts. Sound design was courtesy of 740 Sound Eddie Kim, and each spot final mix was engineered by Loren Silber of Lime Studios.

About A52
Established in 1997 as a home for the very latest high-end photo-real visual effects technologies and the industry most innovative and talented graphic design artists, West Hollywood visual effects and design company A52 creates award-winning imagery for the world most visually ambitious commercial and television projects. The company work has been earned AICP Show recognition for six consecutive years along with recent ‘Outstanding Commercial’ Emmy, Andy, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction, International Monitor, International Automotive Advertising, London International Advertising, One Show and PROMAX awards. For more information, please call Mark Tobin at 310.385.0851 or visit www.A52.com.

About RPA
RPA, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is the largest independent advertising agency based on the West Coast. Since its founding in 1986, the agency independent and integrated approach has led to award winning work for a variety of clients including Honda, Acura, Pioneer Electronics, Blue Cross of California, ARCO, VH1, California Pizza Kitchen, Gardenburger, Bugle Boy Jeans, WebTV, Morningstar and ampm. RPA offers its clients truly integrated campaigns that resonate throughout its disciplines including traditional advertising, media services, interactive and direct and event marketing. For more information, visit www.rpa.com.