Digital Domain Gets Real for Toyota

Venice, CA -- Digital Domain [1] created an oppressive computer generated (CG) world to showcase Toyota’s new GT86 in a new spot titled “The Real Deal” from Stink director Adam Berg and Saatchi & Saatchi London. Berg, working with Saatchi & Saatchi's Andy Jex and Rob Potts, tapped Digital Domain to tell a story that mimics the car's key value - breaking out of a monotonous synthetic existence with the power, control and excitement of real life. Expertly wielding Digital Domain's deep digital production toolset, Berg worked with artists to create everything from digital characters to a stunning full virtual world. The spot aired August 17 in the UK.

The spot promotes the new Toyota GT86, a sports car that puts control in the hands of the driver rather than computerized systems. Led by VFX Supervisor Vernon Wilbert, Digital Domain supervised the shoot and helped realize the vision of the Saatchi creative team and director Berg. The ambitious project was completed by a team of 18 artists in eight weeks thanks to the efficiencies afforded by Digital Domain’s production-proven processes for building digital characters, cars and environments.

Wilbert said, “Because Digital Domain has such deep resources, we were able to handle everything required for this complex spot -- from previs to virtual production, live-action integration, 2D and 3D animation and tracking, photo-real hair and cloth, and more – without any dedicated R&D. We were able to repurpose about 95% of the assets for this spot from our libraries, which really helped in terms of cost savings and efficiency. We leveraged the digital human pipeline that has been developed at DD over projects like Benjamin Button, TRON: Legacy and virtual Tupac; we were truly standing on the shoulders of giants.”

“The Real Deal” is Adam Berg’s second collaboration with Digital Domain and Wilbert. They teamed up in 2011 for the award-winning commercial “Dust to Dust” for the Gears of War video game franchise. Wilbert said, “Adam knows exactly how to leverage digital production and all that it offers. He spent hours on our virtual stage framing up shots within the digital sets.”

Source: Digital Domain