{"id":3455,"date":"2022-08-28T16:23:03","date_gmt":"2022-08-28T20:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/2022\/08\/28\/what-was-it-like-to-work-on-the-last-pillsbury-stop-motion-animated-commercials\/"},"modified":"2022-08-28T16:23:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T20:23:03","slug":"what-was-it-like-to-work-on-the-last-pillsbury-stop-motion-animated-commercials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/news\/what-was-it-like-to-work-on-the-last-pillsbury-stop-motion-animated-commercials\/3455\/","title":{"rendered":"What Was It Like to Work on the Last Pillsbury Stop-Motion Animated Commercials?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Heather Taylor, Icon Editor, Advertising Week<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In 1990, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Pillsbury\u2019s beloved brand mascot, was transitioning away from stop-motion animation to CGI animation. But animator Tom Rubalcava<\/a>, who was hired at Colossal Pictures the same year to work in their animation department, had no way of knowing he would work on some of the Doughboy\u2019s final stop-motion commercials<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It seemed particularly strange to think most commercials, starring brand mascots or otherwise, would eventually be produced in CGI. Stop-motion animation was becoming mainstream in feature films again. A few years prior, Rubalcava had produced 99 animated episodes of the \u201cGumby Adventures\u201d TV series starring Gumby, the surrealist green humanoid character made of clay who was famously animated in stop-motion. After the blockbuster success of \u201cJurassic Park,\u201d CGI would become all the rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"pillsbury
Photo credit: Tom Rubalcava<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

What was it like to work during one of animation\u2019s greatest shifts? Rubalcava takes PopIcon behind the scenes of animating one of Poppin\u2019 Fresh\u2019s final stop-motion campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

From Making Short 8mm Films to Animating Gumby<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For Tom Rubalcava, school was all about art. He excelled in art classes and as early as his teen years had an interest in filmmaking and animation. Inspired by sci-fi and Ray Harryhausen films, Rubalcava would make short 8mm films with his neighborhood friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

After graduating from high school, Rubalcava would meet like-minded filmmakers and start working as a crew member in local independent projects. While in community college in Diablo Valley, Concord, California, Rubalcava took courses in film history and TV production alongside longtime friend Dan Morgan. Morgan and Rubalcava had previously experimented with prosthetic makeup in their 8mm films when they were younger. After being assigned to work on a short film together, they decided their project would be a mini documentary on \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d makeup effects. They entered their documentary in the school\u2019s film festival and won second place in documentary shorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Then came Rubalcava\u2019s big break. In the audience at the student festival was a young film director whose first feature film was to be funded by Roman Coppola, the son of film director Francis Ford Coppola. He approached Rubalcava and Morgan, asking if they would be interested in creating makeup for his feature film debut and the pair said yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

However, as time for preproduction got closer, Rubalcava realized he was more interested in art director and storyboarding. Even though he had sculpting skills with makeup, Rubalcava was itching to get back to 2D art. As Rubalcava recalls, the director and producer saw his portfolio of storyboards and concept designs and placed him to work in an art direction role on the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not long after the film\u2019s completion, a colleague from an earlier independent film let Rubalcava know Art Clokey, creator of Gumby, was resurrecting the character and its stop-motion animated series. They were hiring at Premavision Studios in Sausalito, California. In 1987, Rubalcava was hired to work on Gumby and found himself back in his sculpting roots in the character fabrication department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

From 1987 to 1988, Rubalcava would produce 99 animated episodes for the \u201cGumby Adventures\u201d TV series. He stayed on to work on \u201cGumby: The Movie\u201d which would later be released in 1995. As Rubalcava started to look for more work as a freelancer, he found out about Colossal Pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The Quiet Intensity of Animating a Stop-Motion Pillsbury Doughboy Commercial<\/strong><\/h3>


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