Visual Effects Case Study: Roto Rooter “Elves”
Digial mouths and an updated rooter tool complement the practical puppetry in this Roto Rooter spot. Move the slider to toggle between before and after.
Project Type
Commercial Spot
Production Company
The Bear
Director
Rohitash Rao
Producer
Elizabeth Spiva
“You guys saved our ass. As usual with a job like this , the deadline was approaching and the wheels fell off the cart - and you all stepped in like Superman saving the train from crashing. Thank you!”
Foxtrot X-Ray is delighted to share our first commercial collaboration with Austin-based production company The Bear, for Bandolier Media, for Roto Rooter! The Bear executive producer Elizabeth Spiva brought Foxtrot X-Ray on board to perform compositing duties on this stop-motion ad inspired by the Rankin/Bass ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and directed by Rohitash Rao.
Rather than going through the pain-staking process of using stop-motion mouth animations, Foxtrot X-Ray added animated mouth shapes using VFX, saving a substantial amount of time and resources. This was done by creating several different mouth shapes to match up with various phonetic sounds, animating a sequence of mouth shapes to match the voice-over, and tracking the movements of the puppets to apply the animations. There was an additional challenge when it came to Santa’s mouth animations. His beard also needed to be animated so that there would be believable movement to his mouth.
Foxtrot X-Ray also replaced the Roto Rooter Man’s snake tool, as well as cleaned up the stop motion armatures and other artifacts from the animation process. The result was a fun and nostalgic advertisement perfect for the holiday season.
To learn more about how VFX can be used to create memorable marketing and advertising, read Foxtrot X-Ray’s whitepaper, “The Impact of CGI and VFX in Marketing and Advertising.”
Other projects featuring similar effects by Foxtrot X-Ray include “You Bee Lyin’”, Fluorescent Beast, and Bringing Back Christmas.
To discuss how Foxtrot X-Ray can create memorable VFX for your projects, schedule a meeting with our team of professionals today.