SANTA MONICA, CA – Method Studios (www.methodstudios.com) recently completed 2D and 3D effects for a new Sears spot out of agency Y&R Chicago. The Spring commercial encourages viewers to bring their backyard to life and features numerous flowers and plants blooming, with tools appearing as their flowers. Lily pads become Craftsman circular saw blades, a plant grows and unfolds to reveal a wrench set, a ride-on mower blooms from a flower, and picnic umbrellas blow like pollen in the wind.
“This spring, the changes are everywhere,” notes the voiceover, “but they all start at Sears.” The spot was created in both :30 and :60 second versions, the longer of which contains more imaginative plants.
“The Sears spots were a big challenge, because effects like this can look really tacky if you’re not careful,” explains Method’s Cedric Nicolas, who served as lead 2D VFX artist on the project. “The spot came to us through director Rupert Sanders, who we often collaborate with. With some really close-up shots on the plants, totally photorealistic effects, as well as great cinematography and depths of field, we knew we had a chance to do something great.”
Rupert, Cedric and production designer James Chinlund designed the plants that would hold the Sears backyard items.
“Rupert was absolutely adamant that the plants have an entirely realistic, organic animation,” says Nicolas. “To that end, we used real ferns, lilies and other plants as reference, but we made them look as if they’re made out of non-organic materials such as metal, plastic, rubber, carbon fiber, etc. So they grow just like real plants, but they look like the gardening equipment they contain.”
Method worked with pre-vis company Halon to integrate 2D drawings into a live action world. Further real-world reference was provided by Chinlund, who created tangible versions of the 3D models.
“James also built some plastic lilies, so Rupert could put them in the frame and see how they’d look,” says Nicolas. “He built tons of stuff like that. It was a fantastic collaboration.”
Method had two months to complete the project. The studio used Autodesk Maya and Mental Ray, along with image-based lighting. Compositing was performed using Discreet Inferno and D2’s Nuke software.