Ruairi Robinson has directed 2 commercials for San Diego Zoo; ‘Kitty’ and ‘Mudbath.’  They feature the daily adventures of two mammoths - Phil and Harry.  Promoting the new ‘Elephant Odyssey’ exhibition, the spot was produced by Rebecca Silverstein at M&C Saatchi LA and Roger Hunt at Alturas Films.  MPC’s studios in London and LA collaborated to provide visual effects work including concept art and 3D animation for the mammoths.

Concept artist Andrew Brooks worked closely with Director Ruairi Robinson to develop the characters’ look and range of expression.  Once the concept was signed off, the 3D team modelled, textured and groomed the mammoths.  MPC’s in-house fur simulation tool, ‘Furtility’ was used for texturing and grooming their fur.  Facial rigging was achieved using concept art developed by the MPC Concept Art Team and later combined with a muscle system.  This accentuated certain poses such as bulging eyebrows adding to the realism, yet retaining enough stylisation to enhance the humour.

In ‘Mudbath’ much of the steam was generated in Maya and mixed with live-action steam elements which had been shot separately.  Maya fluids were used to create the 3d tar surface.  It was important to create believable interaction between the tar, the dipping trunk and the sinking mammoth.  

The back plates were shot hand held using a Red Camera and all the data management was done by MPC’s Data Lab.  The Red raw files were converted to DPX at 4k to give the 3d team the best detail to work with. These backplates were then projected in 3d onto proxy geometry to get the desired camera move. Additional live action elements and matte-paintings were then projected and composited into the back plates .

The grade of the plates and elements was done remotely, with George K on the Resolve Suite in London and the clients in LA reviewing the material in real time.  Final material was shipped back to LA via our digital network, and Mark Gethin added the final mastergrade.

The 2x30 second spots will be on air in the US

All the 3d was built in Maya and rendered using Pixar's RenderMan. The compositing was done in Nuke.