Press release from Click 3X:
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Click 3X [1] does just that in a high-energy spot for the Maryland Lottery's MONOPOLY scratch-off ticket, bringing the board game's iconic dog to startling CGI life. Click 3X CGI Director/Creative Director Anthony Filipakis led the effort on the spot, which came to the studio via REJ & Associates, Inc., GKV.
The spot opens on the well-known Scottish terrier game piece standing placidly on a broad tabletop. As a funky beat opens up, the staid little pup springs suddenly to life, pouncing toward a pair of lottery tickets and digging up the scratchcard as though he was going after a particularly delectable buried bone. The animated animal bops across the landscape, dancing, spinning and moonwalking his way through the spot.
Click 3X created an entirely CG world for the dog, which includes virtual foreground objects such as the table, chairs and fruit bowl. The studio then combined those elements with HDRI backplates, which allowed them to seamlessly light and render the CGI environment.
"The virtual set helped make the camera moves much more dynamic and allowed us to create angles that would have been much more difficult to achieve practically," stated Filipakis. "It also made the spot a lot more fluid and entertaining. This flexible virtual approach - which avoided getting into the rigid mindset that we had to go all CGI or all practical - yielded an awesome final product."
Click 3X's attention to detail was crucial to creating, in macro detail, the typically miniscule-to-the-naked-eye dust and debris that builds up from the doggy's digging into the scratch-off lottery ticket. The studio created these beautifully lit photorealistic close-ups by shooting loads of reference shots.
Click 3X worked closely with the agency to bring their vision of a fun, entertaining reprise of the beloved Monopoly dog to life. "We set out to create a fully animated CGI spot that could be both amusing and entertaining as well as visually impressive in a photoreal way," noted Managing Director/Partner Jason Mayo. "We had a lot of fun with this one, especially in working with the agency, whose creatives had a very clear idea as to what they were looking to achieve and were extremely collaborative technically as well as creatively."
"We had the bar set pretty high as far as how we wanted the dog to look and move, and Click 3X nailed it," noted GKV creative Dave Broscious. "The dog not only looks real, he has real personality, which makes the character much more likable and the spot that much more fun to watch."
Links:
[1] http://www.click3x.com/