An animator's guide to the best CGI characters

Todd Mueller – Director and Co-Founder, Psyop

I totally love this assignment! There have been so many amazing brand characters throughout the years. Personally, the first brand character that grabbed my brain when I was a kid was the Kool-Aid Man. It was just such a strange thing. It was like some fat angry uncle in the form of a giant glass carafe filled with Kool-Aid busting through your walls. WTF? 

Above: Freak Out, a 2013 spot for Kool-Aid contained the immortal lines, “people get freaked out when you drink from your own head.” 

726 years later, I never imagined I would be dreaming up my own weird-as-hell animated characters. Apologies for the self love but one of my favourites is the cheerleader from the Coca-Cola's Happiness Factory and also the ‘Love Puppies’ from that series. I remember slapping Angelina Jolie’s lips onto a round furry ball in Photoshop and thinking, ‘holy shit, this is something special!’ 

Above: Happiness Factory: Yawnbusters is part of the award winning five-year Coca-Cola campaign that began in 2006. 

Oh and I can’t forget Kevin the Carrot! Kevin and his extended family have been an absolute delight to bring to life. From his very first harrowing adventure across the dining room table eight years ago, every film has been a joy to help create. 

Above: Aldi’s 2017 Christmas story, Kevin & Katie, showed Kevin the Carrot's softer side. 

Danu Muddikuppam – Director and Co-Founder, VisKefi

Canal+ The Bear is something I love to watch over and over again. It has all the elements for a great commercial. Not only does it capture the essence of a film director's life at work but it meets the challenge of bringing a CGI bearskin rug to life. 

It's not a regular bear with limbs driven by bone and muscles; it's just a rug, so a lot of body is missing. But they achieved its motion with so much naturalism in terms of gravity and weight that the flat rug appears to be moulded like a human body. They also did a fantastic job pulling off the main performance and gestures with the facials, head and hands. A great idea, well-executed.

Above: The 2011 Canal+ ad The Bear, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen, won a slew of awards. 

I love the photo-realist, 100 per cent CG orangutan in the SSE ad, Maya. This proved that TV commercial quality can be as good as VFX Cinema quality. The CG asset itself is just amazing in terms of the look and feel of the realistic fur, the physical locomotion and performance and the fine facial details that support the close-up shots. We work with CG animals so we know how time-consuming and challenging it is. The ad is also a perfect blend of live action and CG, with great lighting, rendering and compositing that take the entire commercial to a new level. It's a real feast for the eyes. 

Above: Director Fredric Planchon collaborated with adam&eveDDB, Academy and The Mill on the creation of the incredible orangutan for this 2014 SSE spot. 

Rob Slychuck – Senior Art Director, Imaginary Forces

The singing California Raisins is a stand out ad from my childhood. The stop motion fruits became somewhat of a phenomenon at the time – they even had their own Christmas special, which I had recorded on VHS.

Above: This 1987 claymation spot introduced the amazing shrivelled grape superstars performing I Heard It Through the Grapevine. 

The Pillsbury Doughboy was an all-time great, who could watch those ads and not want whatever he was baking? Fantastic character design and animation and a memorable punchline to tie the ads together.

Above: The ticklish Pillsbury Doughboy was a popular character in the mid 80s.

Jack Antoine Charlot – Director, Passion Paris

I like the Skittles Yoghurt Boy character for its intelligent use of 3D. The technical level in fluid simulation is truly impressive, and choosing to create a character covered in liquid cream quickly creates a visually impressive and satisfying effect. I find the highlights and reflections on its texture very elegant, enabling a superb integration of the character into the real shot.

Above: Ian Pons Jewell directed the gloopy hero for this 2020 Skittles spot. 

Ludovic Houplain – Co-Founder, H5

I've always liked Bibendum Michelin, because he is so strange and he's also one of the heroes in our film Logorama.

Above: The Michelin Man [aka Bibendum Michelin] has been the tyre brand's mascot since 1894 and played a leading role in H5's 2009 Oscar-winning short Logorama. 

The Jolly Green GIant was probably one of the first animated characters I saw in TV commercials. I really loved this giant green corn man, he was so charming.  

Above: The 1999 ad Sun and Rain featuring the Jolly Green Giant, a character first created for the Green Giant brand by a young copywriter named Leo Burnett in 1935.

Jim Hill – Director, Northforge 

It was a stroke of genius to throw together wonderfully edited vox-pop recordings, amazing character acting and the innocence of plasticine stop-motion in the Heat Electric: Creature Comforts campaign. They were all great characters, but whoever was interviewed for The Tortoise had such a great voice and turn of phrase which married so well with the charming character design.

Above: Nick Park directed these much-loved Aardman Animation ads from 2004. 

The Peperami animal was just a great antithesis to the usual saccharine children's commercial characters. As they pushed the campaign on, the production levels increased, but the character still kept its edge. But nothing will beat the first ad; halfway through walking towards the camera, the character inexplicably splits its legs and starts floating mid-air. You could cite it as an example of terrible animation, but I just see it as a bit of craziness – character over common sense

Above: The Peperami creature in these 2016 ads was voiced by comedian Adrian Edmondson. 

Will Wightman – Director, Blinkink

For me Dougal Wilson is the master of heartfelt animated characters. I could've chosen Monty the Penguin, the iconic moonwalking shetland pony or countless others; it's no wonder he's helming the latest Paddington sequel. For me though Edgar the Dragon, with his gorgeous big eyes and endlessly good intentions make him utterly irresistible.

Above: The incendiary Edgar, created by Adam & Eve/DDB and Blink's Dougal Wilson, was the star of the 2019 John Lewis Christmas commercial.

Bunny Schendler – Director, Lecturer at Cambridge School of Art 

March of The Pylons was a work of British animating and advertising genius. The stop motion, hand-animated pylons rising up, galvanising one another to save the planet… mmm? It was a terrifying, and heart-warming mini-epic!