MPC Brings a Little Bit of Luck to the New York Lottery

Press release from MPC:

The VFX wizards at MPC [1] recently teamed up with Skunk directing team Ne-O via DDB NY to conjure an army of magical little blue-suited folks for a New York Lottery spot. The studio handled color grading and all VFX work.

The Arrival opens on a day just like any other, as a man travels from the suburbs to the city for work. But wait -- what's that behind the bushes? Peaking over the subway rail? Riding by in a city bus? Why it's Little Bit of Luck, the beloved NY Lottery character and he's back with some friends. There are now multiple Little Bits of Luck to reinforce that there are nearly a million New York Lottery winners a day. So now there's a little bit of luck for everyone.

"What a great chance to team up with a talented directing team like Ne-O on a whimsical, fun spot," noted MPC NY MD Justin Lane. "It was a tremendous amount of work to pull this off, each shot presented its own challenges as the spot grew in complexity and size. While we aimed at maintaining a lighthearted feel, we also needed everything to be precise and seamless to make the spot feel as real as possible."

MPC's principal task was to integrate the little guys with their green screen heads. MPC's Creative Director Alex Lovejoy explains, "Having collaborated with Ne-O on the famous VW Singing In The Rain commercial, Ne-O and our team knew exactly how to best approach a project this complex. Detailed measurements and reference passes from the shoot proved invaluable on the green screen set, where we made rough composites to check lighting and camera positions. Some 80 heads later and it was back to MPC for some serious comping!"

The studio finished off the spot with CG crowd duplication to portray a city landscape packed with Little Bits of Luck both walking and sailing through the air with 3D parachutes as MPC-generated confetti floats to the ground. When it came time for color grading, MPC evened everything out with a technical grade and then ran a final tape-to-tape session to blend it all together.