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New Norelco Stop Motion Christmas Ad
December 1, 2011
Did I say ‘Stop Motion’? Well maybe not exactly. Seems like most of it is stop motion except for the hero character which appears to be CGI ….
Looks kind of air brushy? Just saying , you know … not necessarily a criticism. For those of us with keen sense, perhaps a slight aesthetics style mis-match with the real stop motion? (other puppet characters) Here is the advertisement spot in its full animated glory and judge for yourself ….
For many of us of the ’seasoned generation’, in the USA these very short TV ads just before Christmas brings lots of memories of what was maybe more simple & innocent era back then ….
LINKS: Publicity Release about new Norelco ad – Related: If this is CGI, you may need ‘Alka-Seltzer’
EDIT: The ‘Santa Cgi or Stop Motion’ mystery has been solved … read the comments/replies …
Topics: Commercials-Ads-TV-Net, Puppet Animation, Stop Motion | 14 Comments »
The date can’t be right on that last video. I made the miniature trees for that ad and I definitely did that sometime in the 80’s at Broadcast Arts. They may have still been running that version in 1994 but, I worked on it a good number of years before that.
By the way, THANKS for posting that! I never did get a copy of it so, I’m really happy to finally see it again!
I reserve my final judgement until I can see the thing in something that hasn’t been polluted by the compression needed for YouTube, but my inclination is that it’s all stopmo.
The Norelco ad I worked on was the very first job where it was planned to be stop motion but the clay Santa was taken away from us and replaced with a digital imposter. Only the sets I worked on are real in the final product.
Ya know, that makes me rethink my earlier comment… Maybe it was 1994??? Hmmm yeah, it must’ve been made after Jurassic Park and was the beginning of the near end of stop motion… I stand corrected.
Hmmm … re-read the above publicity release article (link) a few more times. Says … razor, matte paintings, & compositing done digitally/cgi. Maybe case of writer’s keyboard communication style not clear to me. Why not clearly state, Santa was Stop Motion? Secondary puppet characters certainly look it but Santa has a CGI-like ‘pristine’ appearance. Like Dave H said, maybe easier to better judge on larger screen TV (not compressed small youtube player). Also per article byte, the Stop Mo crew (puppets, sets, & animation) only had 3 weeks & worked 24/7 … jeez … insane deadlines (as usual)
I personally think the most recent incarnation of Santa in the ad was all CGI. I certainly hope we see some new Mr. Peanut ads from LAIKA this year!
It kills me when folks use CGI to try and replicate a stop motion “look.”
Yeah Langley, ridiculous.
My wife Carol sculpted the heads (based on the agencies designs) in October of this year. It’s all stop motion done by a company called Bix Pix. The animation was overseen by a guy named Drew Hodges who won an Emmy for last years stop motion COMMUNITY Christmas special.
@Steve … not casting aspersions about new Norelco ad. Stop-motionists just have more critical eye
. Maybe real Santa puppet touched up post-digitally (which is valid combining old & new) to blend puppet with the Cgi razor? We’re all for stop motion via all manner of outlet/venues.
No problem, I just wanted to get the info out there.
I’m not sure about your keen sense there. I made the Santa puppet. No CG. Just a good old puppet.
Others also thought the Santa character might be cgi. Another example … when Coraline movie teasers first appeared, also lots of questions among the traditional stop motion crowd about the facial animation which had cgi look. It seems to happen more and more with ad agencies, studios, directors, producers … opting to take cgi short cut and cash in on the retro stop motion style with attempts to ‘fake it’ with cgi.
Thanks for posting. It’s good to have the ‘actual artist’ here to confirm that the puppets and especially the Santa one, is also a real crafted creation and not cgi!
All puppets and sets are 100% stop motion. I worked on it too.