John Lewis, Buster the Boxer VFX Breakdown By MPC

John Lewis, Buster the Boxer VFX Breakdown By MPC

MPC, adam&eveDDB and Blink’s Dougal Wilson reunite for landmark John Lewis Christmas animated film

In the magical hush of a suburban garden, it’s the night before Christmas – an ordinary family tucked up in bed – when an urban fox emerges from snowy undergrowth. Hesitantly, he climbs onto a trampoline, assembled hours before by an exasperated dad as a gift for his little girl. The fox is joined by a charming cast of CG animals who perform virtuoso leaps and jumps together to Vaults’ cover of Randy Crawford’s 1980 track ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’, in a two-minute spot that truly sets the bar for CG creature work.

Directed by Blink’s Dougal Wilson and conceived by adam&eveDDB, the film is an extraordinary animation feat that sends a heartfelt message about the shared joy of play. Our VFX team spent over four months skillfully bringing the cast of animals to life for John Lewis, whose seasonal epic requires an exceptional level of craft. With six characters to create, this unprecedented animation challenge is the holy grail of CG.

VFX Supervisor (CG) Diarmid Harrison-Murraycomments ‘These are the sort of jobs we wait for. When Dougal and adam&eveDDB approached us, I felt a healthy dose of trepidation as it was clear this was an enormous job. Technically and creatively it pushed us further than we have ever been before. For me, photo realistic animals and creatures are one of CG’s ultimate challenges. We had to create six of them, and then put them all on a trampoline, which was challenging enough itself. The attention to every detail of animation, fur, lighting and fx was immense. The slightest slip-up in our work would break the illusion of reality and the magic of the film. This was an extremely challenging project for a high-profile brand – I’m really proud of our contribution to this beautiful piece of work.’

CREDITS

Agency
adam&eveDDB

Production Company
Blink

Director
Dougal Wilson

Executive Creative Directors
Rick Brim & Dougal Wilson

Copywriter
Ben Stilitz

Art Director
Colin Booth

Agency Producer
Panos Louca

Production Company Producer
Nick Goldsmith

DoP
Joost Van Gelder

Editor
Rick Russell @ Final Cut

VFX
MPC

VFX Executive Producer
Julie Evans

VFX Producer
Hannah Ruddleston

VFX Line Producer
Sandra Eklund

Creative Director, MPC
Diarmid Harrison-Murray

Shoot Supervisor
Tom Harding & Tito Fernandes

VFX Supervisor 3D
Fabian Frank

VFX Supervisor 2D
Tom Harding

Animation Supervisor
Tim van Hussen

Grade
MPC

Colourist
Jean-Clément Soret

Bangalore Line Producer
Goutham Hampankatta

2D VFX Team
Grant White, David Filipe, Andreas Feix, Alex Snookes, Venkatesh Rajagopal, Ginesh Gandhi, Jonathan Box, Amresh Kumar, Padma Priya, Prasanth Palaparthi, Rajesh Kumar, Shalwin Shaiju, Yasasvini. V, R Vignesh, S. Samson Samuel & Shalwin Shaiju

3D VFX Team
Chloe Dawe, Anthony Bloor, Ben Thomas, Graham Cristie, Jessie Amadio, Julien Labussiere, Luca Maccarelli, Matthew Gifford, Radu Ciubotariu, Tito Fernandes, Tushar Kewali, Vincent Ullman, Will Laban, Hanna Binswanger, Max Mallmann, Jessica Groom, Ankit Dheraj Toppo, Earnest Victor, Ganesh Kumar S., Bibin Balan P, Gayatri Patel, Jyoti Prakash Panda, Manjunath Ramakrishnaiah, Inigo Vimal Roy, Ria Banerjee & Gayatri Patel

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