One of the most unusual personalities on television is "The Box": a walking, talking cardboard box representing the Progressive Corporation. It has been involved in all sorts of amusing scenarios, but in its latest appearance, we discover that The Box can sing. Who would have thought?

In late 2018, I was hired by Zero VFX to bring The Box to life for its latest round of commercials. Specifically, I was asked to animate a lounge singer and album record infomercial parody, Live from the Starlight Lounge! When I first started the gig, several song segments had been recorded, but the client had not yet decided which ones would be used in the commercial. The songs were all cleverly written, and voice actor Chris Parnell did a great job of singing them. To get a head start, I went ahead and animated an initial pass for at least twelve segments, knowing that most would not make it into the final cut. While some excellent songs failed to make the cut, the client eventually approved an edit, and I proceeded with the final animation.

The brilliant Mike Warner at Zero VFX supervised this project. Since I had previously animated several Box commercials for Mike, I was familiar with the quirks of how The Box was supposed to behave. One of the character's trademarks is a cartoon-style mouth that moves dramatically across its face. The mandate for body mannerisms was to create as much realism as possible; restraint was required regarding how far the character could bend so it wouldn't appear too rubbery. One of my biggest challenges was delivering a performance that would please everyone involved. I occasionally received notes on the nuances of the performance from both Mike and the advertising agency (Arnold Worldwide). Unfortunately, these parties were not always on the same page. Character animation is a subjective art, and opinions on acting styles can vary. The trick is to find the right balance of ideas while keeping everyone happy, including myself! Andrew Rasmussen handled the lighting and texturing of The Box and did a fantastic job matching the challenging high-contrast light of the Starlight Lounge. The project was a pleasure to work on, and it turned out to be one of the best "The Box" commercials to date.