The brief was to create a series of spots for Simply Nuts peanut butter that brings their refreshed branding elements to life. We were to show the creation of the peanut butter in a fun and playful way, with a tasty product shot at the end.

The end result is a mixed media animation that takes you into a fun 2D world of peanuts, that are grown, nurtured and then pulverised! Before transforming into the delicious snack.

Our characters are hand cel animated for lovely punchy movements, and the silhouettes contrast with our CG stream of product to really stand out.

Creating a CG product shot is always a challenge. Finding that perfect balance of realism and stylisation is a key part. We want to stay true to the product but we need it to behave in ways that it can’t in the real world.

In this case we needed to create the peanut butter build up in a short time on an angled spoon, something that in real life would either take longer or splash and slide off. We solved this one inside of Maya using the Bifrost fluid system which provided some tasty results! It was great to work with a fun script and a client that was open to the jokes.

The way the piece takes you from this loving moment, then snapping to crushing the peanuts, and then over to the angelic drizzle in a short space of time was really fun to execute. The cherry on the top was the final audio mix cutting to a crushing heavy metal beat for a brief moment. Perfectly emphasizing the crushing machine.