Nathan Love Hatches Animated Magic for Perdue

Nathan Love Director Anca Risca recently put her design aesthetic on display for a pair of Perdue spots in collaboration with The VIA Agency. Risca headed a small team of Nathan Love artists and animators that spirited the highly recognizable company chairman Jim Perdue into the animated world, along with an endearing cast of supporting characters.

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Building upon basic animatics provided by the creatives at VIA, Risca and company infused brand-consistent style and character in both We Believe and Diet, delivering playful, animation-driven narratives about the quality assurance efforts at the Perdue facilities.

Both spots are studies in strong design executed with a smart and subtle sense of humor, trademarks of Risca’s previous animated work for Sweet ‘N Low, Oregon Lottery and Stridex. “Anca’s strength lies in capturing universally endearing personalities in the characters she creates,” notes Nathan Love ECD Joe Burrascano. “VIA selected Nathan Love in large part due to our experience developing great characters and bringing them to life.  No one has proven as consistently great at this as Anca.”

Delivering a reliable representation of longtime company spokesman Jim Perdue was of particular importance in maintaining the company’s carefully constructed brand image. Risca and her team paid special attention to Jim’s animated counterpart, finding the right balance of detail and simplicity.

“We wanted to keep Mr. Perdue recognizable to the many people who are already familiar with him,” explains Risca. “To fulfill that, we raised his level of detail from the rest of the characters, who were designed to be simple and iconic representations. The extra detail gave him more humanity and made his features more distinguishable as a spokesman.”

As is Nathan Love’s custom, a strong back-and-forth with the agency played an important part in the creative and production process. “From the very first call with VIA, we started making magic,” states Risca. “They put their trust in us and there was always an easy exchange of thought-out ideas and feedback.”

Downloads:

Credits:

Client: Perdue
Chief Marketing Officer: John Bartelme
VP of Marketing for Perdue Brand: Gail McWilliam
Spot Title: “We Believe”
Airdate: 4/26/2013

Agency: The VIA Agency
Chief Creative Officer: Greg Smith
Creative Director / Copywriter: Amos Goss
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Bobby Pfeiffenberger
Executive Producer: Mary Hanifin
Producer: Jerry Izzo
Creative & Business Affairs Manager (Associate Producer?): Meghan Gildart Nappi
Client Strategist: Dan Bailin

Production Company: Nathan Love
Executive Producer: James Braddock
Head of Production: Derrick Huang
Creative Director: Joe Burrascano
Director: Anca Risca
Character and Environment Design: Anat Even-Or
Character Modeling: qlbeans
Additional Character Modeling: Sari Rodrig, Brett Porter
Character Texturing: Sari Rodrig, Triston Huang
Rigging: Lukas Wadya
Animation Leads: Nam Doan, Dave Han
Animation: Tristan Balos, Dave Lee
Additional Animation: Carlos Sandoval, Fernando Chan, Stieg Retlin
Environment Modeling and Texturing: Sari Rodrig
Lighting and Rendering: Triston Huang, Sari Rodrig
Compositing Lead: Kristjan Zaklynsky
Sound Design: Drew Skinner

About Nathan Love:

Nathan Love is an innovative animation, design, and development studio located in NYC. Driven by a passion to tell great stories and connect with audiences around the globe, Nathan Love develops memorable characters, imaginative worlds, and engaging narratives for television, film, Web, books and video games. Clients and collaborators include Kellogg’s Froot Loops, McGraw-Hill Education, Chips Ahoy, NBC-Universal, and Nickelodeon Studios.