The toy category rarely gets much love from the design and adverting press but ECD Tom Teller and the crew at Frame48 in LA just changed that vector with this exuberant CG spot for Fat Brain Toys and their Air Toobz sets.
Tom Teller: This campaign started with hands-on research, as the team built, exchanged, and looped pieces together to test the toy’s limits, which turned into one of the most fun product-testing experiences our team has had.
“To show so many set-ups, we built a custom Houdini tool that used the real product’s assembly constraints to snap pieces into possible configurations.”
The biggest challenge was the sheer number of ways the toy could be arranged. To show so many set-ups, we built a custom Houdini tool that used the real product’s assembly constraints to snap pieces into possible configurations.
This allowed animators to quickly shuffle elements around – a process that would have taken hours to position by hand. This way, they could spend less time assembling the toy parts, and more time infusing playful movement.
Our artists kept the colors and lighting simple, primarily focusing on how the product felt through motion. The result was exactly what Fat Brain Toys was hoping for: sharing the limitless play that Air Toobz is built for.





Client: Fat Brain Toys
Production: Frame48
ECD: Tom Teller
EP: Julian Conner
Art Director: Steven Lee
CG Supervisor: Enrique De la Garza
Executive Assistant: Ann Kamstra
CG Artist: Will Hoskin
Junior Compositor: Rahaf Kishk
Junior CG Generalist: Kyle Lin, Luis Mathison
3D Animator: Zhara Honore
Junior Animator: Julia Edwards, Sydney Christensen
Assistant Editor: Emma Limbocker
Sound Design/Mix: Gerry Vazquez