Anchor / Butter The Food, Butter The Mood

In conjunction with long-time collaborator, director Joseph Mann at Blinkink, the Freefolk team have produced another exuberant spot for Anchor Butter, playing with the long-standing “Butter the Food. Butter the Mood” slogan.

Freefolk’s involvement spanned the full timeline of the project. “Having worked many times with Joe and producer Josh Smith before. “They really like to get us involved right from the start even before fully story boarding so we can suggest and guide them in any ways we think could be useful from a practical or post position,” says Freefolk’s 2D Lead Andy Copping.

The shots of people, furniture and animals sliding around involved the most work. “All objects and people had to be roto'd off their original plate and placed onto one hero plate,” says Andy. “These shots had 22 layers so they had some serious amount of work in them. Along with timing them to the world's movement, everything moving in the scene was being either dragged or pulled so there were multiple areas of clean up.”

Shadows were then placed, and scuff marks where tables had been sliding were added to make it believable. To give the puppets character, their eyes were animated with blinks and eye rolls. There was also rod and rigging removal. Flame and Nuke were used to achieve these effects.