How to do this? Our directors McBess and Simon set about creating the animated world of Niggles and Narks!  And what are Niggles and Narks?  Every Niggle and Nark character represents an irritating problem customers may have experienced at some point with their broadband supplier. And O2's role is nobbling these niggles.

Olly Calverley, VCCP Producer explains: "McBess and Simon, and the entire production and support team have been a dream to work with on this project. It hasn't been easy, with many stakeholders involved in how the characters should look, what they represent and so on, but the team at The Mill have remained focused and created a truly beautiful piece of animation that we are all very proud of."

The campaign includes national press coverage, an in-store launch including packaging, in-store plasma sequences, unique collectables and promotional material with merchandising and shop front displays, as well as a 60" TV spot followed by three 20" versions, outdoor posters with 96 and 46 sheets and digital 48 sheets.  Not only that, the campaign also includes an online service portal complete with a full interactive launch with Facebook, games and iPhone apps together with an experiential activity (details to be released nearer the time).

McBess and Simon tell us: "We were really excited to get a shot at working on such a great project for O2 and the pitch was incredibly engaging and inspiring. We understood that it would be a great opportunity for us to build a really cool piece of animation.

"The idea behind it was clear and we needed to make sure it looked good. We worked for a very long time on the designs and it took us a while to ensure everybody was happy.  

"The characters of course were really important so we did a lot of drawing to find a way to keep a nice look while ensuring the characters' concept was understandable.  This was a lot of fun to do!"

"On the production we had the chance to work with very talented people and everyone has worked so hard to build it.  It was a great collaboration and team effort and everyone involved is very happy and proud of their work on it."

Alex Webster, Executive Producer continues, "The unveiling of the O2 campaign is a significant moment for the content direction team at The Mill as it sees our original design and animation work across a whole host of media platforms.

"At the outset, Mill animation duo 'McBess and Simon' were charged with designing the Niggles and Narks characters and Broadband land itself, working closely throughout the process with the team from VCCP to define the overall aesthetic and personality of the campaign. Once in to production, McBess and Simon began work directing the main 60" spot whilst also designing the myriad of executions for print, outdoor, in store, national press, collectibles, shop front, digital posters and crafting the animations for the web and game application.

"The project was a great challenge and we are incredibly happy with the results - both creatively and from a production point of view. Brad, Olly, Darren, Ian and Steve at VCCP were a joy to work with and we thank them for giving us the chance to work on what is clearly a brilliant, multi-platform campaign."

We also had a team of 15 3D modellers, animators and Lighting and Renderers all working to craft the look and feel of the final characters and environment. Lead by Senior 3D Artists Dave Fleet and Guillaume Cassuto, they worked for several months alongside McBess and Simon developing the way the characters look and move. The final look and feel of the piece is a testament to their creative and technical ability.

Darren Christie, The Mill's Head of Nuke comments: "All the compositing work was done using Nuke. Various matte painted elements and photographic skies were digitally projected then combined to achieve the stylized backgrounds.  Multiple CG passes made up the environments and characters which were also Art-Directed by The Mill's two in-house directors, McBess and Simon. Once all the compositing work was completed by myself and Dexter Davey, we built an edit within Nuke, sent this as data directly to Baselight for final client approval and any further tweaking to 02's trademark sky blue colour."

"In all, it was an amazing job to do in Nuke - creatively and technically, with fantastic animation work done by McBess and Simon in 3D.  Bring on the next batch!"