Robin Hood “Memories” is a :30 second, fully computer animated spot created by Redrover Animation Studios Ltd. for Smuckers Canada, represented by Ogilvy & Mather Canada. The spot reveal two children named Andrew and Elizabeth who are being interviewed in a documentary style show about why they enjoy baking with their mom. The table shows various used baking utensils to suggest they have just finished baking muffins and the product, a rolled up bag of Robin Hood flour, rests nearby. The sunny afternoon setting fills the kitchen with a warm inviting sunlight and creates a visually engaging commercial that arouses immediate interest in the viewer. Currently, Andrew and Elizabeth are on the front page of the Robin Hood website.

“Memories” was produced over a span of approximately two months with a core group of 6 artists. Andy Knight designed the original character designs which were then modeled and rigged by Ben Pilgrim. I textured the kids and added a touch of sub-surface light scattering for a more realistic skin shader. The animation was produced primarily by Kyle Dunlevy and was intentionally kept subtle at the request of the agency. Meanwhile, Chris Crozier and Mike Oliver had the daunting task of researching kitchen designs and, once we had all agreed upon one that fit the spot, they modeled and textured the entire environment down to the last detail. Once the animation had been completed, Mike Oliver dynamically simulated Elizabeth’s pig tails using 3dsmax’s Reactor. At this point, I began lighting and rendering each spot which was then passed on in various layers to Brad Husband for color correction and compositing. Concurrently, Stephanie Dudley created the tag graphics for us and once everything was completed, it was cut together on the Avid by Trevor Lloyd.

This spot was created with Autodesk’s 3dsmax 6.0, rendered with Chaotic Dimension’s VRay 1.47.03 using modern global illumination lighting technology in combination with traditional computer graphics lighting techniques, composited with Autodesk’s Combustion 4.0 and edited with Avid’s Adrenaline. The depth of field was produced with my own Depth Of Field Generator PRO plugin.