Commercials are more interesting than the Super Bowl game itself. See how Brickyard VFX helped create the amazingly complex “ESPN Mobile” spot. © Mobile ESPN.

Another Super Bowl has come and gone, but as intended by many advertisers people are still talking about some of the amazing commercial spots launched during the breaks throughout the game. Commercials have arguably become more interesting than the game itself and the Super Bowl is the preeminent event to show off the evolution, trends and cutting-edge visual effects technology that are shaping the industry overall. Super Bowl 2006 ‘s offered more than 50 new TV spots that ranged from straight-out funny, to visual eye-poppers that left viewers asking, “How did they do that?” With embargoes now dropped and the vfx companies eager to share how they created their spots, VFXWorld talked to many of them about how the concepts came together and the challenges of making 30-second epics designed to knock viewers socks off.

A52 — “Honda Ridgeline”
Andrew Hall, CG supervisor for A52, was responsible for the clever Honda spot where a buxom mud flap gal walks off her perch and over to a new Ridgeline truck, where she then drives off with a Yosemite Sam “Back Off” flap. “The idea was presented as initial storyboards for the concept, at that time being just one long tracking shot around the car, with the cutaway to Yosemite Sam and the end card,” Hall explains.

A52 was responsible for the clever Honda spot where a buxom mud flap gal walks off her perch and over to a new Ridgeline truck. Before shooting the Honda Ridgeline spot, A52’s Andrew Hall and his team spent a week prevising the action to get the timings and the setups locked down. All Honda Ridgeline images courtesy of A52.

As the director, Hall says, “I had a great deal of input, which allowed me to basically build an animatic of the spot and take it in a direction that would still communicate what the agency had represented in their initial boards. I wanted to have a variety of shots that would express a little more of her interaction with the car while still remaining true to the agency’s concept. So we spent about a week before shooting, prevising the action out to get the timings and the setups locked down. I worked closely with artist Casey Schatz building the previs that we presented to Honda before we shot the car footage. Also, for the purposes of animation, while shooting the car we also had a stand-in actor who performed the actions I wanted to capture. This then gave the editor something to cut to and a starting point for the animation of the mud flap girl. Animation is always a great challenge in itself, and, in this case, the action of the girl had to communicate her thoughts and reactions to the car. Having no detail in the face to emote feelings really then relied upon the gestures be convincing. Also, the timeframe was a challenge as after we finished shooting the live-action plates of the car we had two-and-a-half weeks to edit and complete post-production to deliver it in time for the Super Bowl.”

“All the animation was done using Maya and rendered with Mental Ray. These elements where then combined in Flame with additional work of adding extra light interaction and building the movement and look of the mud flap in Flame also. Pat Murphy handled all of this, and he really added another level of detail to the spot that brought everything together so successfully.