Foxtrot X-Ray wrangles digital bees for Edmunds and Lemonlight
Award-winning video production agency Lemonlight tapped Foxtrot X-Ray’s team of visual effects specialists to bring to life a swarm of digital bees for “You Bee Lying,” a commercial spot for automotive website Edmunds.
Production and Post: Lemonlight | VFX: Foxtrot X-Ray | Copyright 2024 Edmunds
The actor’s head as a wireframe mesh
Because the actor is speaking and moving his head and the bees needed to adhere precisely to his face, the first step involved building a digital mesh of the actor’s head and tracking his facial movements. From there CG Supervisor Seth Wise used the tracked head mesh as an emitter for a particle system where each particle was a fully articulated and textured bee model. A small batch of “hero bees” were then animated by hand to crawl atop the mass, and additional bees were rendered with generic hovering cycles which could be animated in the final composite by VFX Supervisor Paul DeNigris. The result is a funny and memorable spot that sells Edmunds’ biggest strength: honest reviews.
