PORTLAND, OR — Bent Image Lab (http://bentimagelab.com) recently completed work on four stop-motion commercials for Gatorade that promote the company’s power bars and energy drinks. Agency VML conceived the "Recover" spots, which have football, basketball, hockey and baseball themes.
In each spot, the Gatorade foil packaging crumbles into a tiny athlete, who excels at his respective sport. The origami figures take on the silver sheen of the foil, while the orange Gatorade logo becomes their miniature uniform.
According to Bent partner/director/designer Chel White, the spots were created entirely using stop-motion techniques and without any CG. This includes the small, practical set backgrounds, which were also given motion through stop-motion.
Bent director Rob Shaw adds that the team went for a very realistic style of motion. The studio used live action reference of real athletes to build the animated performances.
The entire campaign was edited in Adobe Premiere CC and compositing was performed using After Effects.