Summary
OfficeMax Shows Off Their Wild Side
Elephants, rhinos and gorillas, oh my! In OfficeMax's new ad
campaign from agency Preston Kelly Minneapolis and director Ben
Smith of The Mill NY, it's African wildlife who steals the show in
three 15-second spots.
"The team from Preston Kelly was great to work with-they were
very collaborative and fun," explains Smith. "They initially
contacted us to create this campaign because they had seen the lap
giraffe from the DIRECTV "Opulence" ad, and knew they wanted to
work with the people that created him. Our goal was to make
humorous spots, and make them look as believable as possible, since
they are all entirely CG."
In order to make these realistic CG animals perform, the timings
and actions of the animals were blocked out by The Mill team during
pre-vis. After analyzing reams of animal footage to understand how
each one moved, a team of animators lovingly key framed the animals
into life. Various simulations were created to add realistic
skin and muscle movements to the animation.
Smith laughingly adds, "We found great references for the
elephant spot by searching for 'fat guy on Unicycle' on
YouTube."
Try to ignore this elephant in the room!
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