The Mill fuses comedic legend Jason Alexander to…a hoodie?

Jason Alexander… on a hoodie? Is that a thing…? We teamed up with Director Jeff Low of Biscuit Filmworks and Saatchi & Saatchi NY on Tide ‘Jason Alexander Hoodie’ featuring the iconic Seinfeld star to help launch Tide Hygienic Clean Heavy Duty 10x detergent. In the spot, which aired during Super Bowl LV, Jason’s face animates a teenage boys beloved hoodie which is subjected to an onslaught of messes throughout the day.  

The Mill’s VFX team expertly blended Jason Alexander’s face onto the hoodie to create a seamless look. With every mess that the hoodie encounters, from dog drool to gum, Jason’s facial features react to each grimy situation. 

Creative Director, Becky Porter comments, “First we had a talent photography session to capture a variety of Jason Alexander’s facial expressions. We needed a great deal of different expressions to choose from since he is subjected to so many different messes.” 

CG Lead Artist Graeme Turnbull adds, “Our biggest challenge was creating a photoreal hoodie that we could drop into shots where needed. The complexity of this varied greatly depending on camera moves, layout and our talents movement. Due to the tight big game time-frame, we needed to hit the ground running. We spent as much time as possible in the lead up to receiving our edit doing R&D and look development. This helped us achieve the high-quality texture of the final hoodie. We tested various approaches which led us to a mix of 2D and 3D solves for the best results. We also created a huge library of Jason Alexander faces in Nuke that could be adjusted, tweaked and dropped back into shots very quickly. I believe we created 40 different face options all together!” 

Creative Director, Becky Porter finishes, “Nailing down the texture and weight was a large factor in making the garment look believable. It was a challenging task and the team really stepped up to it.” 

To see our full list of credits click here. You can also get in touch with our VFX team to discuss any upcoming project via our contact page.