SWAY ANIMATES THE NEW MINI
September 9, 2010

SWAY ANIMATES THE NEW MINI

The spot was conceived by BSUR Amsterdam, and called for Sway to create hundreds of photoreal Countryman vehicles that race through various Italian vistas and landmarks. The cars split into clones as they race through the narrow streets, and merge back together at different points.

Brian Beletic directed the :60 Flow and Aaron Powell served as VFX supervisor. All but three of the 317 vehicles in the spot are CG. Sway used CAD data supplied by Mini, along with reference photos to match the hero vehicle from the live-action shoot. For animation of all the driving sequences, Sway employed its proprietary Drive-a-Tron software.

The Sway animation pipeline made use of Autodesk 3DS Max; V-Ray for rendering; Nuke and Flame for compositing; PTGui for HDRI reflection and lighting; and a variety of packages for tracking including Sway's proprietary software, Nuke, and PFTrack.

Adam Pertofsky of Rock, Paper, Scissors in Santa Monica cut the :60 and a :30 version. Neil Meiklejohn assisted. Music was provided by The Rumor Mill and Brian Emrich handled sound design.

Smuggler and Sway also created The Last Spot, a second VFX-driven commercial for the campaign.