What do you do when you have a car that can morph into any car on the road, or a robot that can smash food like no other robot? Make commercials with really cool special effects, that's what!
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00:00What do you do when you have a car that can morph into any car on the road, or a robot
00:04that can smash food like no other robot?
00:07Make commercials with really cool special effects, that's what!
00:11Spike Jonze is best known for directing mind-bending movies like Being John Malkovich and Her,
00:17but sometimes he turns his talents towards commercials like the 2018 Apple HomePod ad
00:21Welcome Home.
00:23It features FKA twigs returning to a dreary apartment after a long day.
00:27It looks like she's in for another glum evening until she asks her HomePod to play her something
00:31she'd like, and Siri picks Till It's Over by Anderson .Paak.
00:35Twigs' dance moves stretch her apartment into a rainbow-colored, brightly-lit wonderland,
00:40which was mostly created through practical effects.
00:43The set was built on hydraulics, with special expanding props and walls.
00:47Twigs and Jonze worked with choreographers and engineers to create a dance that could
00:50interact with a set built to actually expand with Twigs' moves.
00:54When Twigs bumps a wall back, it's a practical construction pulled away by other dancers,
00:59and when she pulls a magazine on a table, another dancer is pushing a lever to extend
01:03that magazine to dreamlike proportions.
01:06Minimal CGI was used, thereby proving that creativity and collaboration are truly the
01:10best special effects of all.
01:13Taylor Swift has been dominating pretty much every corner of pop culture for the past several
01:17years, and that includes a 2018 DirecTV Now commercial that also features a version of
01:22her cat, Olivia Benson.
01:24The ad consists of a spokesperson hyping the wonders of cable that's tailored specifically
01:28to customers, while Swift rides out of the world of normal cable and into one full of
01:33giant flying cat-unicorn hybrids.
01:36Making-of footage of the ad shows Swift riding a fur-covered apparatus that looks like a
01:39mechanical bull in front of a green screen.
01:42Almost all of the commercial's magic was accomplished with CGI in post-production.
01:46When Swift asked if they could create a creature called a catacorn, the filmmakers took her
01:50idea and ran with it.
01:52And I love it."
01:53It's a little hard to believe that the Old Spice ad campaign, The Man Your Man Could
01:57Smell Like, starring Isaiah Mustafa, kicked off all the way back in 2010.
02:01The commercials feature Mustafa delivering a rapid comedic monologue while he does impossible
02:06things, all in one take with practical effects.
02:08In the first spot, he's moving through a half-boat set, while a shirt rigged with wire frames
02:13drops on him and off-camera crew members puppet set pieces in and out of frame.
02:18According to a Deep Dive podcast interview with commercial copywriters Craig Allen and
02:21Eric Kalman, even the diamonds in Mustafa's hand were placed with practical effects.
02:26As Allen explained,
02:27"...we shot the diamonds as an element on black with a fake hand in there."
02:31So there's actually a machine pumping diamonds through a fake hand that we then composite
02:37into his real hand."
02:39These practical techniques were then replicated in later commercials in the campaign, including
02:43Scent Vacation.
02:45Starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle,
02:49the 2021 Doritos 3D Super Bowl commercial Flat Matthew appears to be a riff on the popular
02:54children's book character Flat Stanley.
02:57The ad features a paper-thin McConaughey going about his day while wishing something could
03:00make him feel like himself again.
03:02When he slips into a vending machine and pops a Doritos 3D puff into his mouth, he then
03:07proceeds to puff right back to life.
03:09It's a funny, if deeply disturbing, transformation, achieved in large part thanks to The Wizards
03:14at the Mill, a post-production house famous for its top-tier VFX work.
03:19McConaughey filmed his movements in front of a green screen, which were composited and
03:22animated to create the flat versions of himself in the commercial.
03:26According to VFX supervisor Alex Candlish, the most challenging shot was the vending
03:30machine.
03:31The hand was a specific focus for us, transforming the flat features to live action, using texturing
03:36and lighting to bring it to life.
03:38The animation team transformed those flat features by copying McConaughey's facial expressions
03:43and other gestures, then mapped those over CG geometry to create Flat Matthew.
03:48Sometimes special effects are practical, sometimes they're digitally complicated and
03:52require teams of animators and designers, and on rare, glorious occasions, they're achieved
03:57by robots.
03:58And not just any old robots, super-powered s'mores-smashing robots.
04:03Advertisers will generally put a commercial anywhere they can nowadays.
04:07That was certainly the case with this promo spot for 2021's Hershey's Chocolate World
04:11S'mores Time Square Horizontal ad.
04:14It was directed by Steve Geralt of The Garage Agency.
04:17It shows off sumptuous s'more-centric displays, including a satisfying smash-together of
04:21a gorgeously gooey, melty marshmallow sandwich.
04:25The perfect s'more is assembled using a motion-controlled robot.
04:28A behind-the-scenes video on The Garage's website reveals that the team had to do a
04:32little retouching and many takes to get the shot that would make busy New Yorkers stop,
04:37stare, and remember to add Hershey's bars to their shopping list.
04:41Sometimes the special effects in commercials are fast, furious, and cranked full of action.
04:46LG's 2016 World of Play commercial achieved that by creating a world chock-full of action
04:51star Jason Statham.
04:53The spot was put together by Chicago ad agency Energy BBDO and its post-production partner,
04:58The Mill Chicago.
04:59While Statham is watching something on his new LG G5, he looks over and accidentally
05:04nudges another Jason Statham.
05:06This leads to an epic fight, a dance-off, and a heist, all with countless versions of
05:11Statham.
05:12This was all captured by filming the actor interacting with his double, then switching
05:16places with that double and filming the subsequent shots.
05:19The shots were then stitched together.
05:21Many extras wore masks of Statham's face, all bearing different expressions.
05:25And as the shot was quite fast and was panning quite quickly, you never knew that they were
05:31masks.
05:32They all looked like Jason.
05:34Creating so many masks looks incredibly difficult, and so does recording the same epic fight
05:38sequences multiple times to match multiple lines of action.
05:41The end result is a commercial that is playful, magical, and, honestly, due for a sequel.
05:47Jason Momoa is famous for his immensely muscular frame, and a 2020 Rocket Mortgage Super Bowl
05:52commercial utilized that iconic physique for body horror laughs.
05:56What better way to sell the world on mortgage lending?
05:58The ad features Momoa getting comfortable at home as he rips off his buff arms to reveal
06:02some spindly limbs underneath.
06:05Then he pulls off his six-pack torso to reveal a zero-pack, and he tops it all off by pulling
06:10off his flowing mane to reveal a balding head.
06:13The Mill handled VFX for the commercial, which employed green-screen windows and walls behind
06:17Momoa, who wore a green-screen long-sleeve shirt.
06:21Footage of the actor was then composited with shots of an actually skinny actor mimicking
06:25his movements and tearing away a prosthetic suit to reveal his own skinny limbs.
06:29Animators then assembled this footage together to create quite the hilarious nightmare.
06:33It takes a village to bring a Super Bowl campaign to life.
06:36It's just not one individual.
06:38It truly is a team effort all the way around.
06:41Legendary VFX post-production house The Mill has created the Blackbird, a car that can
06:45be any car, and viewers aren't able to detect it with the naked eye.
06:49In a 2018 commercial for the Chevrolet Equinox, for example, the Blackbird looks like, well,
06:55the 2018 Chevrolet Equinox.
06:57As it turns out, the Blackbird is a VFX car rig that can be animated to appear as any
07:02real-life car in post-production.
07:04It looks like a beefy go-kart and is outfitted with equipment to help animators capture important
07:08digital information.
07:10It's also decked out with a camera rig to record the environments it drives through.
07:14The images captured on the car's drives can then be used to create photorealistic reflections
07:19in photorealistic CGI cars.
07:21Top Gear even did a segment on this technology.
07:24The Mill's international EVP, Alastair Thompson, described it as motion capture for cars and
07:30He noted that making believable VFX comes from grounding the effects in reality.
07:34As he explained,
07:35"...it is a car.
07:36It drives with a real driver.
07:38It interacts with the ground just the way a car would."
07:40"...but then you can then re-skin it with any vehicle that you want on top."
07:45The 2021 Super Bowl ad for the Electric Cadillac Lyrics Super Cruise hands-free driving feature
07:50stars Winona Ryder reprising her role of Kim Boggs from the 1990 movie Edward Scissorhands.
07:56In this version, Kim is now a mom to Timothee Chalamet's Edgar Scissorhands, and let's just
08:01say this kid clearly takes after his father.
08:04Edgar goes through similar trials and tribulations that his dad did back in the day, including
08:09magnets getting stuck to his hands, accidentally nipping a bus cable, and always being picked
08:14last to play football.
08:16It's a heartfelt tale that ultimately comes to a happy ending when Kim springs for Edgar's
08:20new car, complete with hands-free driving options.
08:23Legacy Effects handled the largely practical work for the spot, as they custom-sculpted
08:27Chalamet's Scissorhands in just eight days.
08:31Interestingly enough, the founders of the company were also the wizards who built the
08:34Scissorhands for the original film.
08:37Ryder told Vanity Fair that Chalamet was a natural with the Scissorhands, and added,
08:41"...it was a pretty special thing to be able to revisit again, even if just for a little
08:45while."
08:46An iconic logo became very real in a 2021 Super Bowl commercial for Paramount+.
08:51The spot features various celebrities and fictional characters climbing their way to
08:55the top of the Paramount Mountain to advertise yet another streaming service.
08:59Puppets from Cranky Anchors, Dora the Explorer, Beavis and Butthead, The Girl from the Ring,
09:05James Corden, Christine Baranski, Stephen Colbert, and young Sheldon Cooper are among
09:10the many intrepid folks making the climb.
09:12Patrick Stewart welcomes them all at the top with a drink and a SpongeBob dance party as
09:16they celebrate a mountain of entertainment.
09:19This ad may not be subtle, but it is pretty seamless, which is impressive considering
09:23that it was produced in 12 separate shoots in three different countries.
09:27Sarah Labrash, Senior Vice President of Creative Marketing for ViacomCBS Digital, explained
09:32to Paramount.com,
09:33"...due to COVID restrictions, we shot each individual separately.
09:37In most cases, they would show up to a big studio with a snowy ground and a green screen
09:42all around it."
09:43Those separate shots were stitched together in post by the prolific team at The Mill.
09:47As that same article revealed,
09:49"...we wanted the Paramount Plus Super Bowl commercials to look like a $100 million movie.
09:53It's safe to say they got their wish."
09:55Sure, let's make it weirder.
09:58The Allstate Mayhem commercials are a feat of advertising and effects, but perhaps the
10:02most special effect of all is casting the spokesperson's real-life brother.
10:07It's a simple trick that involves no green screen or special makeup, but it's still incredibly
10:11funny and effective.
10:13All of these ads feature the character of Mayhem, played by Dean Winters, getting up
10:17to destructive mischief to illustrate the importance of insurance.
10:20In the 2023 spot, Competitive Pickup, Mayhem plays your overly competitive brother.
10:26This includes a game of driveway basketball with Winters' actual brother, Scott.
10:30The sibling rivalry leads to the destruction of the garage sighting that the hoop hangs
10:34on, but there's no need to worry about that if you're covered by Allstate.
10:38This example is admittedly a little different than all the others on this list, but we're
10:41still counting it as a special effect.
10:44Even though it doesn't rely on CGI trickery or celebrity star power, it's a fun in-joke
10:48that takes things to another level when you learn the behind-the-scenes story.
10:52It takes advantage of how long-running ad campaigns can feel like part of your family,
10:56especially one that's lasted more than a decade.
10:59In a world that changes every day, that kind of relationship is genuinely special.