The 2D team changed seasons, extended the already impressive sets and of course crafted the final touches to our wonderful creatures. The bar is set incredibly high for CG animals in commercials, there was a huge range of performances to covey across the spot and they have to look perfect. We went into minute detail when comping Hattie, breaking down the hero render into its 12 component parts and utilising on average 16 extra technical passes to fine-tune the picture. We worked closely with SideFx, who make Houdini, to use an alpha version of their brand new muscle and skin system. This new workflow allowed us to simulate the muscles, skin and fur in more than 35 shots – whereas previously we would have had to choose hero shots to simulate. This subtle additional movement adds to the realism of Hattie pushing her to be a more tangible creature.