The Benz and the Hare

In an interview with Robert Stromberg, director of Maleficent, he discussed some of his creative processes while working on a commercial that was aired on Super Bowl Sunday. His mission was to retell the story of the Tortoise and the Hare for the purpose of advertising the new Mercedes Benz. He said that the most difficult part of the project was designing each of the animal characters and giving them human-like personalities. The characters were created with on paper and sent through a series of other programs before finally being modeled in Maya. During the animation process, the characters had to have expressive faces and do expressive human actions. In addition to the animation, live action shots were captured. This proved to be a challenge in itself because the weather was non-compliant for the most part, but the waiting proved to be worth it because the foggy misty shots were a nice addition to the commercial.

I can't say that I learned too much from this article. I enjoyed the new twist on the tale, but that's about it. I learned that the commercial used both animation and live action. How did the director come up with the idea to crossover the Tortoise and the Hare and the Mercedes Benz? Be creative and take inspiration from past successes and stories. An old story could become your next big success.