![\"cascade-pink-dino_cc-800pix\"](\"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/cascade-pink-dino_cc-800pix.jpg\" "\\"cascade-pink-dino_cc-800pix\\"")
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This is a frame from the first commercial I was paid to work on; my first professional job in 1969 at Cascade Pictures. This is from a Kellogg’s Cocoa Krispies cereal commercial featuring a caveman named Ogg. (His wife was “Kell” … for Kell-Oggs.)\u00a0 These characters were used until about 1975.\u00a0 (see link below)<\/p>\n
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The stop-motion set-up was unusual. Ogg was mounted on a stationary rig while the Styrofoam rocks and environment\u00a0were slid past a fixed, stationary camera.<\/p>\n
I was assigned the job of animating the various layers of rock moving past the camera in the background. Each layer was attached to fine string that was pulled a few fractions of an inch per frame.<\/p>\n
The baby dinosaur was suspended on fine monofilament and also animated frame by frame.<\/p>\n
![\"tic412\"](\"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/tic412.jpg\" "\\"tic412\\"")
http:\/\/70scommercials.blogspot.com\/<\/p><\/div>\n
The puppet construction and animation was the work of a terrific designer, Siegbert Reinhard, who also had success with his fine art paper sculptures in the 1980s and later. \u00a0Siegbert’s technique was pretty simple. He started with a block of poly-foam (simple cushion foam) that he carved with an electric knife. Once he was satisfied with the shapes he cut them open and inserted an armature made of either braded aluminum armature (sculpting) wire as in the baby dinosaur or a simple ball and socket armature made with thin steel plates and brass ball links as in Ogg. If you look carefully you can see that the baby dino’s legs are actually separate from the body which allowed the use of the relatively weak wire. The spines are glued on carved foam pieces.<\/p>\n
The puppets were painted with “Cartoon Color” cartoon Cel Vinyl paints from The Cartoon Colour Co, in Culver city, CA. (Update: Cartoon Colour is now selling under the name:\u00a0 Novacolorpaint)<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0 Wearing rubber gloves, Siegbert poured paint onto his palms and squished it into the entire foam puppet like it was a big sponge. Since the paint is a remarkably flexible pigment the puppets remained soft and easy to animate. Details were brush painted.<\/p>\n An interesting side note. The now famous visual effects supervisor, Dennis Muren, was the cameraman on this shoot. He hid the mount holding up Ogg by projecting straw colored light onto a piece of retro-reflective 3M Scotchlight material placed in front of the rig. Dennis adjusted the light intensity by eye for every frame where the rig would be visible.<\/p>\n This was probably the first time front projection materials\u00a0was ever used in a commercial. Only one year earlier in 1968, 3M Scotchlight became famous for its use in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”<\/p>\n I have not seen Siegbert Reinhard for many years. But I no sooner posted this than fellow AI instructor, Kevin Hedgpeth,\u00a0\u00a0e-mailed and sent a link to Reinhard’s studio.\u00a0 I am glad Siegbert’s work is still available.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>http:\/\/www.reinhardstudio.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Edit 2019: Cartoon Colour is now selling under the name:\u00a0 Novacolorpaint<\/em><\/p>\n