Digital Domain created an oppressive CG world to showcase Toyota’s new GT86 in a spot titled “The Real Deal” from Stink director Adam Berg and Saatchi & Saatchi London. Berg, working with Saatchi & Saatchi’s Andy Jex and Rob Potts, tapped Digital Domain to tell a story that mimics the campaign’s key message – breaking out of a monotonous synthetic existence with the power, control and excitement of real life. Relying on Digital Domain’s in-house digital production toolset, Berg worked with artists to create everything from digital characters to a stunning virtual city.
The spot, which first aired Aug. 17 in the U.K., promotes the new Toyota GT86 sports car. Led by VFX supervisor Vernon Wilbert, Digital Domain supervised the shoot and helped realize the vision of the Saatchi creative team and director Berg. The ambitious project was completed by a team of 18 artists in eight weeks thanks to Digital Domain’s in-house processes for building digital characters, cars and environments.
“Because Digital Domain has such deep resources, we were able to handle everything required for this complex spot – from previs to virtual production, live-action integration, 2D and 3D animation and tracking, photo-real hair and cloth, and more – without any dedicated R&D,” explained Wilbert. “We were able to repurpose about 95 percent of the assets for this spot from our libraries, which really helped in terms of cost savings and efficiency. We leveraged the digital human pipeline that has been developed at DD over projects like Benjamin Button, TRON: Legacy and ‘Virtual Tupac.’ We were truly standing on the shoulders of giants.”
“The Real Deal” is Berg’s second collaboration with Digital Domain and Wilbert. They teamed up in 2011 for the award-winning commercial “Dust to Dust” for the Gears of War video game franchise.
“Adam knows exactly how to leverage digital production and all that it offers. He spent hours on our virtual stage framing up shots within the digital sets,” said Wilbert.
