This project was definitely one for the books. We were asked to create a 23 second ad for ÅžÖlen – a Turkish candy and chocolate company. We were given three weeks to produce a set of three videos (each for different product line) and the general guidelines regarding the current style used by the client’s ads this season.

With the storyboards approved, we contacted Onur Senturk, whom you might know from his independent pieces such as Nokta or TRIâ–²NGLE. Onur took care of animating the ribbons, while I did the colors, particles, light fx and all that extra shiny-sparkly stuff. Leo Burnett – agency for this project – provided us with the 3D renders of the products and the audio track.

The compositing of this project was quite a nightmare, but eventually I pulled through. Around 4 days before the air time we had the animation completed, with just some minor tweaks to the pack shot left to be done. Here’s the result:


ÅžÖlen: Bayram: Original Cut (click to play)

 

The project passed the agency critique and went for the client approval. And then came the bomb. Apparently, due to a miscommunication on the higher levels, the client was not aware of the direction the project was heading and decided to axe it. Three weeks of work went down the drain and with four days left till air time, the clock was still ticking.

Without any time to recover from several all-nighters pulled in the final crunch of the original cut, I had to dive back into the project and do it from scratch. Since there was no more time left for new 3D, we dug up some footage shot for last year’s commercial, composited it within the hi-res version of the packshot scene, added some lights, products, cameras and particles and managed to save the project’s broadcast date.

The final cut can be seen below. (I am not sure if redoing pretty much everything qualifies as “cut”.)


ÅžÖlen: Bayram: Final Cut (click to play)

 

Now, I am not going to go into which version I like more (although it’s probably easy to guess), but I am really curious about your opinion. Let me know what you think about it in the comments!

Client: ÅžÖlen
Agency: Leo Burnett
Directed by: Quba Michalski
Design, Animation & Compositing: Quba Michalski
3D Ribbons (Original Cut): Onur Senturk
Paper Sculpture by: Yulia Brodskaya
Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Cinema 4D, 3D Studio Max