Shot on a small isle off the coast of Scotland populated by hundreds of Gannets, this latest spot by LG entitled Birds blurs the boundary between the natural world and computer generated. In the spot, hundreds of flightless birds waddle around the rocky island, until one trendsetting avian looks to the sky, sees a jet in flight and is inspired to take a daring leap of faith off the cliff face. He succeeds in soaring into the clouds.
The seemless integration between live-action and CG elements within a tight schedule presented a challenge to Framestore's veteran 3D team. "We had to manage all the technical challenges of doing birds with 25 thousand plus individual feathers," said CG lead Theo Jones.
This was no easy feat considering the birds' natural behavior. "These birds spend most of their time in the sky or flapping their wings," explains senior Flame artist Ben Cronin, "which is exactly what we didn't want." To ensure that these flightless birds appeared grounded, Flame artists painstakingly removed all of the flying birds.
The end result is a stunning spot that it will leave you second-guessing what you see and asking yourself if flightless birds really can fly.
