“There was a CG pass which was just the main CG lights, an ambient pass which was just the colors projected from the surrounding HDR map, and an occlusion (or dirt) pass which darkened the areas in the ambient pass that would never have been illuminated,” he continued. “This made it difficult to light our scenes interactively because we didn't see what things looked like until the renders were done and blended together in a compositing package. In hindsight, for future projects we'll be combining all the passes into one.”

To catch the spot and learn more about guru, go to www.gurustudio.com.

Credits:
Advertiser - Fox’s Biscuits
Brand - Rocky Rounds
Agency - PWLC
Creative directors - Pete Camponi and Rick Ward
Agency producer - Teresa Quinn
Production company - guru animation studio
Director - Frank Falcone
Modeling and set-up - Mark Ainslie, Tim Dormady, Andrew Kim and Paul Wollenzien
Animating - Mark Ainslie, Bryan Huo, Frank Falcone, Timmy Kan, Taras Primak, Dave Calder
Lighting and rendering - Mark Ainslie, Tim Dormady, Timmy Kan, Taras Primak and Dave Calder
Fur and coat - Bryan Huo
Live action - directed by Harv of 235 films
Editing - Mark Morton at School
Music - Thomas Neuspiel and Keith Power at Keen Music
Final compositing and online - Terry Rose at Soho