We created Captain Ice - the unlikely hero who believes he has the power to defeat a huge fire-breathing lava monster. Captain Ice’s first attempt to extinguish the monster with his icy breath fails spectacularly, requiring him to look for back-up. He finds it in a supermarket in the form of Air Action Vigorsol, but only after a few trials & tribulations trying to get to it. In the end he eats the gum, freezes the monster, but doesn't quite get the girl.

The spot opens on a city under assault from a huge fire-breathing monster. ‘Captain Ice’ is the unlikely hero who eventually defeats him with the help of Vigorsol gum. VFX Supervisor said, “We absolutely love working on these kind of jobs. To concept a fictional character such this, means we work from scratch. We need to determine his personality, features and the precise texture of his lava-covered body. The options are endless.”

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIRE MONSTER:

To bring a fictional character such as this to life, means working from scratch. Everything, from its features and personality, to the precise texture of his lava-covered body needed to be designed and then created using VFX.

To begin with a team of concept artists developed an extensive series of exploratory sketches, to create the right look and feel for our fire monster. As part of this process they undertook in-depth research of volcanic behaviour, as well as studying ice cracks and rock formations in order to develop the right look.

The next step was to create the monster, affectionately named James, in 3D. The character was sculpted in Zbrush, a digital modeling tool, used to meticulously define the monster’s craters and cracks.

The team took special care to define James’ personality, referencing real human expressions and applying them to the 3D model in animation. This allowed for a high degree of anthropomorphism, and shows James both angrily destroying the city, then in shock as he is frozen by the blast of cold air.

The next step was to develop his detailed body texture. The team constructed a bespoke shader in Maya that enabled the character’s temperature to appear as volatile fiery lava, all the way down to icy frozen rock. For James’ rocky skin surface, the VFX artists augmented Maya particles and fluids to have smoke and fire creeping in between the cracks.

To enable James to walk around the streets, the monster had to be carefully rigged as a bipedal creature. He did not have any toes, and therefore a lot time was dedicated in animation to make sure he could stand up right.

ADDITIONAL VFX:

In the final spot we see a city under siege. The opening scene was created using stock footage and layered still frames. Smoke effects were added to create a menacing feel to the sky. The helicopters and truck James throws towards camera were created completely in CG.

As James gets to work destroying the city, his fiery breath and touch blackens the buildings and creates holes on the ground- this effect was added by the matte painting team. Some fire and flames were captured in camera, then were embellished with CG elements. Additional cars and buildings were also added in the background to enhance the scale.

A bespoke shattering software system was used to defeat James, and break down his body into frozen rocks and dust in the final scenes. The team experimented with different speeds of shattering and material properties to make the action appear believable.

There was extensive clean-up of the background plates involved in the film, as well as adding additional fire and debris, and sky replacements. There was also a lot of roto-scoping and compositing James to fit the shots perfectly. The team added ice to cars and the road, embellished explosions and matte painted in extra parts of the city.