Rocket Man

Here are frame grabs from the first of three Banco Popular commercials that were produced at The Ink Tank in 1997.

A few days back, we posted the agency storyboards.

The agency's four panel plus logo thumbnail board was transformed into an epic :30 space journey by illustrator Carlos Aponte and animator Doug Compton.

I think the final film is a little busy. There are something like 15 shots, some very dynamic in the 27 seconds you get before the logo.

This could be an example of pushing it too far. But the film works because of the cool design and, believe it or not -the Elton John soundtrack.

The impact in frame 9 here is literally 2 frames on the film.  It's easy to miss, and if you miss it the stuff that follows doesn't make sense.

An action like that needs to be telegraphed.  At the very least it should be in close up so we see it happening.

Sure, the idea is that the guy is in the middle of Nowheresville, Milky Way and that it's a lonely crash.  But what does that matter if we don't know he's crashed because we can't see it.

Doug also did some strong dynamic animation.  These characters are difficult to move because they're so stylishly rigid.

All the major camera moves are animated.

Airbrush on cel.  Most likely Tom Hachtman's handiwork.

The shapeship morphs into the card for the final frame.

Here's the video: