Ford wanted to create a print ad for its iconic Mustang in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. As we concepted ideas, we began to ask ourselves how we could extend the print execution. One of the ideas featured a cropped-out model next to a Mustang. We named the model after the art director’s wife, then joked that thousands of red-blooded males would be looking at his wife’s Facebook profile after googling her in a couple of weeks. That’s when we realized we could extend the ad by creating a portfolio website for our model.

We gave the model a new name, Dalena Henriques, to ensure that when people inevitably googled the name the only thing they’d find was our website. Then, we created a portfolio website for her, showing more pictures of her and the Mustang without ever showing her face.

What was already a complex VFX spot became even more so when we realized we had to create a car commercial for a vehicle that was not yet available to shoot. In fact, it was going to be months before we could get our hands on the new 2013 Mustang.

To meet the challenge, we collaborated with the director and came up with the solution to shoot the previous model year. We would then use the shot 2012 vehicles and model, track, animate and render photo real CG versions of the new 2013 Mustangs over them.

To achieve this, the team worked closely early in the process to accurately map out the visual effects shot for shot. The team worked together to R&D and design the CG transitions that reflected our four characters’ unique inner Mustangs. During those 4 weeks, the design team worked in Photoshop to create a wide range of style frames that captured the essence of each character and their individual inner Mustangs. From there, rudimentary 2D motion tests in After Effects were created to share with clients. The final approved versions were then fleshed out in CG using a combination of Maya and XSI CG software.

Simultaneously, the CG team was prepping and painstakingly striped out all the superfluous elements the 2013 Mustang CAD data from Ford, readying it for the CG post process.

Once the details were nailed down, we moved onto our three day shoot in Los Angles where the Mill’s VFX team focused on preparing the on-camera 2012 Mustangs for 3D tracking. To achieve this, the vehicles were covered with tracking markers and the decision was made to shoot metallic black 2012 models since they would allow us to key off the reflections for use in post. We also focused on capturing HDRIs (High Dynamic Range Images) of all the locations during the course of the shoot providing elements to use in post to rebuild the environments where needed. These images were also used for post produced CG reflections that could be CG camera projected onto the CG photo-real Mustangs as they moved through the frame.

The film was then edited, color corrected and then sent to post for CG and VFX. There, they conformed the footage in Flame and distributed all the live action plate shots with 30 frames ‘handles’ to our CG team to begin the required 3D camera tracking, animation, lighting and rendering of the CG photo real car elements.

Once all final CG elements were completed we moved into the final phase of the project where we focused on Flame digital clean up and final CG integration into the 2D plates with the final stylistic transitions.

In the end, the spot aired during the Daytona 500 and ACE ranked the spot higher than all of 2012’s Super Bowl automotive spots.

Within 48 hours after the SI Swimsuit Issue hit newsstands, dalenahenriques.com had over 40,000 unique visitors. Over 100 articles were written about the campaigns. People talked about Dalena Henriques on Facebook, Twitter and on countless message boards. One person even hacked the microsite trying to find a picture of Dalena Henriques’ face. The Dalena Henriques campaign was suppose to be a one-off ad in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, but due to popular demand she was chosen to be included on the annual Maxim Hot 100 list.