Coverna was a 60 second spot with a very short schedule which required two shots of a doll answering a phone. There was approximately 1 week of scheduled time to model the doll and phone, and one week to animate and render two three-second shots. Many dolls were purchased and used as reference to build one hybrid doll containing all the best stereotypical ‘doll-like’ qualities of each. Minor details were specifically focused on such as faulty airbrushed paint on the hair, glossy plastic highlights, properly functioning creases and pivots in the joints, and realistically matted skin-toned paint.

The animation was created in a quick and snappy style to emphasize the doll’s limited degree of movement in the joints. There are also some facial expressions to convey the little bit of required emotion. Global Illumination and traditional lighting was used for the final render, as was some post render processing, in order to create a more photorealistic image.

The spot was modeled and animated with 3D Studio MAX 4.2, rendered with Vray (build 0.10.01121301), and composited with After Effects 5. The render times averaged 30 minutes per frame on a dual P3 1 ghz PC.