In addition to taking on the challenge of creating an all-CG world with all-CG characters, Method had to complete the job in a very tight time frame. “The scope and ambition of this spot was definitely challenging considering the extensive amount of CG required in a short time,” said VFX supervisor Nordin Rahhali. “There were a lot of full CG shots as well as plenty of character animation and motion capture.”
“It was exciting working with Mark,” Rahhali added. “He had a lot of ideas and he gave us a lot of great feedback. We faced many challenges, but it was gratifying to successfully collaborate with him on this project.”
Method’s experience with CG creatures and photorealistic fur was crucial to the success of the spot. Dancers in practical suits were filmed for the hamster scenes. The hamsters’ heads, hats and hands were all replaced and recreated in CG. A two-person team created the fur and handled all the lighting and rendering for the hamsters.
Motion capture was used to create the robot armies’ dance moves, which were further refined to make the dancers look more robotic. Most of the environment was comprised of digital matte paintings projected within Nuke to allow for limited camera movements.
The spot was rendered in Maya through Renderman. Lighting was done through Maya as well. Effects were completed in Houdini. The hamsters were rendered in Houdini and Mantra. Compositing was done in Nuke, with a few shots composited in Flame. Tracking was completed in Synth Eyes and 3D Equalizer (everything shot on-set was captured using two camera and 6-8 matchmove artists worked on the spot). Texturing was done in MARI.
Company 3 co-founder/colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld and fellow colorist Dave Hussey performed color grading for the spot.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more out of a VFX-heavy project,” said senior VFX supervisor Dan Glass. “Aliens, robots, dancing hamsters – there’s something for everyone. I hope we get to do a sequel.”
