Amazing Spectacles, an independently-run animation studio backed by Prime Focus, has delivered a new commercial for UK comparison service Gocompare.com.

The ad combines the traditional hand drawn animation style of the 1930′;s and 40′;s with digital post production techniques. Overseen by animation director Richard Bazley, “Big Bad Wolf” sees the Three Little Pigs warned by the Wolf to get some insurance for their house before he blows it down. As he does, Go Compare”s operatic brand ambassador Gio Compario appears to remind the pigs when they insure they should go to Gocompare.

The live action and animation mix saw the return of traditional hand drawn animation. But by combining it with modern digital processes, a slick commercial was delivered extremely quickly. Amazing Spectacles producer Jules Pye said 2D animation “is how many of us got started and to come back to these traditional methods, but add a modern twist is exciting. It’;s great to have light boxes and paper and pencils in the studio.”

Discussing the decision to opt for 2D animation, director Richard Bazley, who started out on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and counts Disney’;s Pocahontas, Tarzan and Hercules among his many credits, said “2D has real character and a certain charm to it, and for this advert, with the characters that feature within it, it was the obvious route to choose. It’;s a great moment when you place the characters you’;ve been working on into the background and you see the world you’;ve created.”

Having sent a specialist Animation Director and VFX Supervisor to ensure everything was captured correctly at the live action shoot, designer Andrew Painter was tasked with developing the characters. Meanwhile, lead animator Eoin Clarke designed and hand painted the backgrounds using the same technique and material used in the 1930′;s and 40′;s to give an authentic look.

Talking about the advantages modern post production tools bring to the traditional animation process, Bazley said, “Although the animation is the same it enables us to do so many things more quickly like multi-planing to create depth. Some effects can be recreated digitally but there are certain effects, particularly the 1930′;s style ones, which need to be hand drawn and scanned in. The key to this project was to seamlessly combine the two.” Jules Pye added, “Technology has sped everything up, to do a job like this in the old days would have taken around 16 weeks but, even with a fairly relaxed schedule, we still only require 9 -10 weeks.”