Conceptual sketches for the characters and environments began in pencil. They were deconstructed into separate limbs, scanned at 600 DPI, and digitally painted using Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

The painted parts were then projected onto 3D geometry and animated using Maya’s IK (Inverse Kinematics) skeletons.

A lot of R&D occurred for the character animation because we were using digital technology to achieve hand crafted looking movement. We wanted everything to have a hand crafted and tactile look even though much of our production was CG generated.

The beginning of the spot, before the transformation to the world of music, inherently has more grit and grain, but even after the transformation happens and we go to a happier world, the tactile quality is retained through the texture of characters and the atmospheric overlays.

The biggest challenge in the production was dealing with dual platforms. Our character modelers and animators were Maya users and our compositing artists were Cinema 4d users. As a result we ended up building our cameras and ground planes in Cinema 4d and then exporting the FBX data to Maya where our characters were built / animated and lighted. The final color adjustment and atmospheric effects happened mostly in Adobe After Effects.