BubbaXtreme was yet another spot created for Mexico. It involved both traditional and computer animation, both interacting with live action. The product, a lollipop, had to be built in 3D for a 3 second product demo featured halfway through the spot.

The lollipop actually proved to be quite challenging due to the translucent nature of the candy. Several attempts were made but each and every time the geometry of the candy would seem hollow and looked like a “shell” rather than a solid object. As a result, a volumetric shader was used to add volume to the inside of the lollipop thus making it appear dense. Although this took much tweaking, eventually the desired look came through. (3 weeks later, FinalRender was released featuring Sub-Surface Light Scattering, i.e. Translucency.) The other challenge was creating a specular bloom which would appear only when hit by light, and would also look glossy-metallic. This was accomplished through various fakes with partially hidden objects rendered with metallic shaders.

The 3D in this spot was modeled, animated, and rendered with 3D Studio MAX 4.2. Ink and Paint for traditional animation were done with USAnimation. Compositing for 2D by Brad Husband with Discreet’s Combustion. Compositing for 3D by Richard Rosenman with Adobe’s After Effects.