Nexus director Conor Finnegan, whose talents for avian animation were established back in 2012 with his wonderful Fear of Flying short film (Stash 101), creates a trio of feathery comic spots for Progressive Insurance.

Conor Finnegan: “I brought a lot of my experience from stop motion to this project, I think this gives the films a tactile feel while embracing their CG nature. We even embraced improvisation during voice-over, a technique more common in puppetry but rare in CG animation.

“Creatively it’s been a real highlight for me from capturing the right comedic tone to creating and developing Chuck and Gina as characters. I’m excited for this campaign to sit amongst Progressive’s flock of impressive films.”
 
Progressive “Mix It Up” (above)
 
Progressive “Dream”

 
Progressive “Smartwatch”

 
Client: Progressive Insurance

Agency: Arnold Worldwide
CCO: Sean McBride
SVP, Group Creative Director: Donnell Johnson
VP, CD: Tom Kelly, Doug Harry
Art Director: Lacie Johnson
Copywriter: Courtney Hoenicke
SVP, EP: Sean Vernaglia
Associate Producer: Sam Zakon-Anderson

Production: Nexus Studios
Director: Conor Finnegan
EP: Paige Sullivan
Producer: Rebecca Archer
Production Manager: Tyler Antin
PA: Ismay Bickerton
Creative Director: Delfina Maria
Creative Manager: Jade Duncan Knight
Art Director: Lina Li
Technical Lead: Dave Hunt
Studio CG Lead: Nico Domerego
Lead Compositors: Dalvir Matharu, Valérie Guichard
Compositors: Camille Krempp, Marco Grandinetti, Heather Costa
Character Designer: Brad Cuzen
Character Designer and Matte Painter: Deema Egorov
Lead 3D Animator: William Lorton
3D Animators: Julien Loth, Dominic Griffiths, Alex Alabado Aragó, Jonathan Clark
Environment and Prop Artist: Eder de Souza
Character Modellers: David Diaz Jimenez, Andrew Hickinbottom
3D Generalists: Matilde Vinther, Hen Levene
Storyboards: Morgan Ritchie, Gabriel Schucan, Klaus Scherwinski
Senior Rigger: Niko Rossi
Riggers: Nayla Nassar, Victor Vinyals
Texture Artist: Lucas De Miguel
Groom Artists: William Bell, Muhammad Waseem
FX Artist: Paul Cousins
Lighting & Rendering: Antonin Derory, Kenny Ip
Editor: Andrea Zantiras
Edit Assistant: Zaki Fulford
Additional Editing: Laurence Halstead
Godfeather Toolkit developed by Fabio Messina
Head of Production: Rachel Moss
PR & Marketing: Nancy Edmondson, Bruce Bigg

Sound Design: Soundtrack
Sound Engineer: Mike Secher