This spot was the biggest 2D challenge of the entire Gecko campaign for auto insurance company GEICO. The weather while shooting was dark, rainy and grey so we needed to replace the sky and background with matte paintings in each shot, and re-grade the foreground to bring consistency to the lighting.
The biggest technical challenge was in compositing the piano drop shot - where a grand piano falls from the sky and crashes into the ground behind the strolling gecko. This shot was a composite of several different takes and elements, together with dust and debris, our compositors were able to create a believable and triumphant crash.
We worked with Renegade on this spot, who supplied us with hand painted 2D animation of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, to which we added dust and interaction. Because of the amount of matte painting, two-and-a-half D projection, and plate composites this spot ended up being an almost entirely CG environment, a first for the gecko!
