Polar Bears. Set against a stunning lakeside backdrop, our campaign tells the story of a tentative bear making his way out onto the ice for the first time. He slips and stumbles to begin with, but with a little help from a friend, he grows in confidence and discovers what he’s truly capable of.

Brought to life using a combination of animation and motion capture of real figure skaters, our polar bears perform on a frozen lake environment that mirrors the famous Dancing on Ice arena. As an added touch, animated squirrels mark the bears’ routine out of 10, nodding to the judges’ role in the show.

To achieve the realistic look and feel, we used a combination of key framed 3D animation and motion capture.

The first step of the production was to create the digital polar bear asset. This was then animated and rendered into a photorealistic animal. The asset was also created to be compatible with a human motion capture actor, so that the complex and recognisable figure skater’s movements could be transferred onto our polar bear to feel authentic and physical.

A human actor performed the basic moves of a figure skater, wearing padding to help them move more like a polar bear. Every movement was recorded by a motion capture rig, and this data was then refined and touched up by animators. This process allowed us to create a polar bear that felt heavy, physical and realistic in every move - but still had the ability to perform pirouettes on ice!