Summary
State of Chaos, State Farm’s latest spot directed by Jim Jenkins via DDB Chicago drives home the benefits of being insured if you should happen to find your town reduced to rubble by a giant, alien robot.
Several Autodesk applications such as Maya, Mudbox and Softimage
XSI were used to bring this marauding creature to life. The 3D
team built a skyline full of buildings for the background and
constructed the hero house as a traditional miniature
model. Jeffrey Dates, Lead 3D Artist and VFX
supervisor, notes: "I personally found the traditional use of
practical models awesome. The house that was destroyed
was actually a 1/8th scale model of the full-size
house. The model was built out, and filled with tiny
drywall and dollhouse furniture. Great care was put in
to making the debris as realistic as possible."
Dates further explains the process: "We used The Mill's
in-house proprietary XMLF workflow for the project which allowed
the lighting and animation to be done simultaneously. When
animation was updated, the lighter would be alerted and the version
of the animation in the scene could be updated. XMLF
also allowed for the data to move seamlessly between Softimage and
Maya for simulation of the secondary motion of rubber hoses and
other props."
The CG alien, house and cityscape were then composited into the
live footage by Lead 2D Artist Westley Sarokin, and finished off in
Telecine by Senior Colorist Fergus McCall.
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