Brief

From the agency’s smallest seed of desire to bring to life a group of avocados, Mill director Matt Darnall developed scripts, carved out characters, sketches and gave these infamously temperamental fruits into a lovable bunch.

Approach

Every phase, from pre-pro to finish, required very specific expertise from The Mill’s artists. From early pencil sketches for character design; to storyboard and animatic development in editorial; to sculpting, modeling, rigging, animation, look development in CG, the wealth of the The Mill’s talents were used.

Impact

A zesty, funny series of social media and web assets that can be built upon, and opens the door for exploring Mill Mascot opportunities.

Brand

Wholly Guacamole

Agency

BBDO San Francisco

Production Company

The Mill

Director

Matt Darnall

Capabilities

Design / CG / Colour

On the project, Matt Darnall says, ‘Occasionally you can be graced by the avocado gods and be granted a flawless beauty. But just as often, they can bet too hard, too soft, too bruised, too mushy.  These finicky characteristics made a great foundation for character designs.

For instance, Mushy Merideth was inspired by extremely soft avocados. That trait made for an overly sentimental character, that is a bit of an emotional (and physical) mess. What about those avocados that are very hard, like little bowling balls? They make for an unappealing snack AND a bad to the bone bossy gal named Serious Susan. You don’t want to eat her or get in her way. Seriously.

Nervous Noah was one of my personal favorites. He was inspired a funny ritual in our kitchen at The Mill around lunch time. It’s not uncommon to see a little plate set aside with half an avocado on it. Just a simple charitable act, right? This avocado is usually mangled! Chunks missing. Scratches on the pit. Completely brutalized and left for dead after garnishing a hungry artists salad. I can’t help but feel for that little guy!  That has to be a traumatic experience. So now we have Nervous Noah, twitches and all.”

Credits

AGENCY
Agency BBDO San Francisco
Chief Creative Officer Matt Miller
Senior Producer Christina Hermann
Associate Creative Directors Adam Balogh & Jason Moussalli
VFX PRODUCTION
VFX Production The Mill
Executive Producer Brian Smego
Producer Kate Ryan
Production Coordinator Umesh Chand
COLOUR
Colour The Mill
Colourist Mikey Pehanich
Executive Producer, Colour Laurie Adrianopoli
Colour Producer Dan Butler
Colour Assists Lindsey Mazur & Jacob McKee
PRODUCTION
Production The Mill
Director Matt Darnall
Executive Producer Brian Smego
Producer Kate Ryan
VFX CREATIVE
VFX Creative The Mill
2D Lead Andrew Pellicer
CG Leads Henning Koczy & Steve Eisenmann
2D Artists Andrew Pellicer & Andy Chang
3D Artists Henning Koczy, Mari Chung, Steve Eisenmann, Hubert Wozniak, Andrez Aguayo, Riyad Hasan, Todd Dufour, Matt Sackley, Ross Scroble, Adam Carroll, Vittal Kuntla, Sudhir Verma, Nole Murphy, Lamarcus Harvey & Dustin Tarr, John Pozo & Alexandria Adams
Design Jamie O'Hara, Tyler Scheitlin, Zach Landua, Adrian Navarro, Aran Quinn & Andrew Hague
EDITORIAL
Editorial The Mill
Editors Charlotte Carr & Al Benoit