Summary
Following on the heels of the Axe / Lynx 'Even Angels Will Fall' spot, we have collaborated once again with the creative team from BBH London to create the global sequel, 'My Angel Girlfriend' for the Excite range. This time, director Frank Todaro is in the hot seat and he brings the difficulties of dating an angelic winged beauty to life with humorous aplomb.
Shot on location in Prague, the 60 second commercial features
the ups and downs of dating a winged angel. From a simple
picnic in the park to a meal in a romantic restaurant and the
explosive drive home, we share the pitfalls of having a girlfriend
with huge feathered angel wings.
The main challenges faced by The Mill's team of VFX artists were
the amount of interaction the CG wings needed to have with their
environment.
Mike Chapman, who was our shoot supervisor and led the 3D work on
the spot, explains more: "As well as the ornamental and
decorative look from the last commercial, the new narrative
required the wings to be able to hit people and objects whilst
keeping the same level of realism. This was factored in on
both the shoot and back in the studio with shots meticulously
planned and a rig built on set that would give us a similar foot
print to our CG wings without impeding the action of our angel when
clattering into things. We also needed to revisit the feather
rig to add in more control to allow us to bend individual feathers
around people and props - the effect of this is most clearly
illustrated in the restaurant sequence."
The visual effects team also optimised many of the other
processes and techniques that they developed for the last Axe/Lynx
Angels commercial, allowing them to turn round shots faster so more
production time could be spent on enhancing the wings'
realism. "One of the main additions was a fur pass that gave
us a softer more tactile feel to the shoulders of the wings which
really help push the detail in the close ups," Mike adds.
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