Post Production review: How The Lab Sydney produced purrfect 3D commercial for Whiskas

When a brand as well established and as popular as Whiskas requires characters to be designed and animated for its new cat food commercials via Whybin\TBWA, Melbourne, according to The Lab’s Head of 3D Clinton Downs the process will always be an extensive and rewarding one. Says Downs: “The production company on these TVCs, Luscious International, had a very straightforward brief, quite simply, get the characters right!”

Whiskas parent company Mars Pet Care has a reputation for commissioningonly the best work and as Downs continued, it was clear The Lab’sprocess had to match. “We started with our in house Character DesignerDaniel Bavell coming up with several illustrative designs for cats with’cat-itude’ which we ran past the production company and agency TBWAMelbourne. It was critical that everyone was 100% happy with thecharacter designs.”

As with many blue chip FMCG brands, much was done in the way ofresearch to finesse the final concept for the new ads. With the scriptfinalised the Lab’s team produced a test animation shot as part ofwinning the overall pitch. Downs explains, “The test was basically a 10second proof-of-concept which provided the first chance to see theapproved cat design come to life. In spite of being a first attempt,the test was very well received and offered a great talking point.”

Following the successful test shot, the project headed into live actionproduction, Downs continues, “Our VFX Supervisor Soren Jensen andmyself were on set gathering lighting data and working with theDirector, James Holt, on the framing of the cat. Using our 3D cat, wecreated a range of cat poses designed to capture the range of motionfrom the storyboards, which we then printed onto foamcore. Theselife-size printouts served a critical role in helping us assess theanimation requirements for each shot and served as a great referencefor composition. James is a very visual person and once on set he wouldoften see a better way to frame a shot. This approach meant we had tokeep a close eye on what was happening in each shot and how it wasgoing to affect the animation and interactions we were creating at alater stage.”

With Whiskas shooting and editing the two ads in the campaignsimultaneously the post production began soon thereafter. The Lab’sProducer on the Whiskas TVCs was Linda Lum who added, “Once the adswere shot and edited our Senior Colourist Marcus Timpson graded thelive action plates in our Baselight suite. We have a real advantage ofbeing able to scan in 2K and work in higher than broadcast qualitydata. This is a big plus for our clients as we scan and grade in house,without any cropping at the best quality possible. This was also thefirst time James had worked on a Baselight suite and he loved theexperience.”

Efficiencies of workflow have long been a major part of The Lab’sethos. Clinton Downs explained, “We try and work as efficiently andeffectively as possible. Always looking for better ways to do things.In this case we minimised tracking by locking off the camera andputting the moves back in during post. Determining the locked off shotswas done in collaboration with James and Susie Douglas, the Producer,both of whom we had an excellent working relationship with. James is avery talented director who gave us the latitude we needed to get theanimation working perfectly by allowing us to trim the edit here andthere. This flexibility meant we could ensure the action of our cat cutseamlessly between shots. It was a cool way of working and meant theclient got the very best out of the animation by allowing us morecreative input.”

According to Linda Lum, collaboration was truly the name of the gamewith the Whiskas ads. “We had a great process in place.” She said.”Using our untextured grey model, we blocked PC’s action in eachcommercial which was in turn sent to the client and agency forapproval. Once approved we would take care of lighting and finalanimation. All in all it was very efficient.”

Clinton Downs agreed, “Basically the first ad served as the test bedfor defining who this character was, how he looked and how heperformed. It also presented us with technical issues to resolve andconsequently meant some late nights were required to get things lookingright. The second ad then bore the fruits of that labour. In truththere was more animation in the second ad but with everything we hadlearned, it took us half the time.”

The Lab’s 3D process is always a comprehensive one. Fused withanimating and personifying animals and characters it becomes a realteam effort to deliver exactly to a client’s expectations.

“We discussed how far we could push the cat’s character.” ExplainedDowns. “We went through the limits and managed the expectations of acharacter that was cat-like but animated. We ended up with ahyper-realistically styled cat that behaved like a real cat, yet wascapable of subtle human expressions, in other words, we had achallenge. The cat also had to be stylistically tuned in each shot.This was a complex process and involved the fine tweaking of its fur’squalities. Our team really raised the bar to make the cat look as goodas it does.”

The 3D animation was carried out in Maya, rendered in Renderman andcomposited in Flame. The 3D team split the renders from Maya intoindividual lighting passes so that Flame artist Eric Schaechter couldfine tune, light and balance. “This allowed Eric a chance toessentially re-light the character within the Flame suite, which helpsthe animation sit perfectly within the live action.” Added Downs “Italso speeds up the process helping time pressures. And as always, Ericadded his own magic to take our 3D further.”

As both commercials begin going to air Linda Lum concluded, “I believewe have captured a very sweet likeable character that both children andadults alike would want to take home.”

Commenting on the project as a whole Clinton Downs said, “It was greatworking with a client, producer and director that we really clickedwith and who trusted us creatively, making the whole job a veryenjoyable and successful one.”