The Mill India Spotlight | Antany Subramaniam discusses working on Heineken’s Super Bowl spot featuring Marvel’s Ant-Man

What was it like working on a spot with the iconic Marvel superhero, Ant-Man?  

One of the things I love about Ant-Man (Scott Lang) is his dedication to his daughter and doing the right thing for the world. This spot was different from anything I’d ever done. I found this project to be unique and challenging, and I was excited for the opportunity to work on a Marvel character with the added element of Heineken 0.0 brand integration. Overall, I enjoyed the adventure of working on this project. 

What was your role in this project?  

My role as a Project Lead mainly focused on the creative and technical aspects of the project in the team. I was working cohesively with all departments from Match Move, Roto-Prep, Assets, Rigging, Animation, Look-dev, to Compositing. Along with Vivekananthan R, the DFX Supervisor in Bangalore, I worked closely with the LA team – Corinne DeOrsay (CG Supervisor) and Nhat Tran (VFX Supervisor) – on every step of the process to get the final look to the quality needed for a Marvel character!   

Talk us through the creative process of the project.

Once we received the storyboard and the brief, we started working on the assets. This included Ant-Man’s suit and helmet, as well as the environment and props like the Heineken 0.0. bottle. The team also began working on Match Move and Roto-Prep tasks and enhancing the visual elements of the shots. Once the LA team shared the complete model of Ant-Man, our team here began work on the rigging and animation cycles. With the next stage of lighting and rendering completed in LA, we moved to the final compositing. We worked across all the departments to get the look of these assets perfect.  

Were there any challenges the team faced? If so, how did you all solve them? 

The team was working on creating assets for Ant-Man’s lab, specifically the different forms of Ant-Man which needed to look like natural elements such as sand, dirt, mud, and jelly. We used projection and procedural textures to achieve the desired look. In one shot, there was a tight close-up of an ant standing on a part of a form, so the team had to ensure that the micro details were scaled to the size of a rock. This was also done using a procedural workflow. To overcome the rigging challenges of the ant, we had to be more creative! The appearance of Ant-Man, his suit, and helmet has been one of our main areas of focus. We spent a lot of time on the look development for these.   

Additionally, the team worked on a trailer shot that involved a specific time period, where we had Roto-Prep and Compositing tasks which carried their own technical challenges.

I want to express my gratitude to the team for their tremendous effort and work. I have had a wonderful experience working on these spots. 

Discover our full roundup of Super Bowl 57 spots here.