In a new spot for Coca-Cola, Psyop and Directors Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick have created an animated spot with an old school cell animation look.

The spot looks att he world through the eyes of a dog and his bored owner as they stroll through a park on a spring day. The concept is really nice comparing what the dog sees to what the owner sees, taking a humorous approach for the entire piece.

Using Maya and Nuke to animate and composite the final rendering the short spot has a genuinely hand drawn feel to it that is reminiscent of classic animations from the 1960’s and 70’s. It is classic 2D animation but with a really nice sense of depth to it. I recommend watching this full screen on a nice HD monitor to get the full effect.

Throughout the spot the focus and story line shift between the dog and the mans perspective, with each view being slightly different stylistically between each other. To get this right the Psyop team used unique camera moves, and a differing look and sound of the action in the shot. Dog vision is brighter, whimsical and more fanciful showing how the dogs mind sees the world differently.

From a technical perspective the environments were built using digital matte paintings that were first rendered in Photoshop as layers. Those layers were  exported as individual files that were projected across 3D geometry, using both Maya and Nuke to build the depth of each scene. The hybrid look was used heavily to create the 2 and half D look that establishes the dogs point of view through out the spot. What the dog sees in his perspective needed to be built in 3D space including not only the environment, but all of the additional charecters and objects the dog encounters on his journey.

Lois van Baarle developed all of the character studies based on actual owners and their pets. working from dozens of sketches the character designs were handed off to Duncan Studio to take the final charecter designs from rough sketches to inked and cell painted frames.

In addition to the characters being hand-drawn, colors, shadows, and highlights were also added in the final hand-drawn animation phase. Animators at both Duncan Studios and Psyop added effects, color trails, smoke, dust, and more, all in the 2D environment.

Really nice work for Coke, Weiden + Kennedy from the folks at Psyop.