'Invitation' features video game and celebrity characters in six full-throttle vignettes shot in Hungary, Liverpool and New York. Crispin Porter + Bogusky created the spot that's directed by top helmer Bryan Buckley, with a wide array of visual effects from The Mill.

The vignettes feature a giant Titanfall robot crashing from a roof into the middle of a conference room; Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard zeroing in on one lucky fan amongst thousands; Zachary Quinto's Spock materializing on a train platform; a zombie from Dead Rising 3 beckoning a student to the other side; an actual McLaren P1 car from Forza Motorsport (one of three in the world, each worth $1.3 million); and a small army of Roman soldiers from Ryse: Son of Rome running through the streets.

"Xbox 'Invitation' utilized a huge number of Mill skill sets," says Phil Crowe, Creative Director/VFX Supervisor. Logistics necessitated Crowe and his team be resourceful. For instance, Zachary Quinto (Spock) was shot in New York while the girl he's with on the train platform was filmed in Hungary. And footballer Gerrard was shot in a gym in Liverpool, while the stadium he appears in and its live-action fans were shot on location in Hungary. "The girl in the subway scene was moving in the shot," Crowe explains, "so a stunt double in New York was used, filmed against a 1 meter x 1 meter grid that DP Scott Henriksen and I devised together. We also shot Gerrard against that grid in the Liverpool gym. This enabled us to line up the shots seamlessly while compositing."

Xbox 'Invitation' combines big production live-action scenes with intensive CG for results on par with your favorite big screen blockbusters. The Mill's Co-2D Lead Artists, Tim Bird and Jake Maymudes, explain the scope of the project: "We tackled over 45 shots with a very tight schedule", Bird and Maymudes explain. "They required immense CG animation, particle effects elements, explosions, matte paintings and high-end compositing. The visual effects team used a variety of live-action elements and rendered CG passes to complete the large amount of photo-real shots. Some of the more challenging sequences were the Forza Motorsport and the Titanfall; Forza for its vast landscapes created with matte paintings and camera projections, and Titanfall for its extremely large robot crashing through the ceiling and interacting with its environment."

Nick Lines, 3D Lead Artist, The Mill, elaborates on that opening scene featuring the Titanfall robot. "We were given game resolution assets which we had to 'up res' so they'd stand up to cinema quality visuals," he says. "We heavily pre viz'd the scene before the shoot, and worked out rough timings and angles for the shots. This served us all well on the shoot day and made our jobs that little bit easier. It did still end up being a 20+-hour shoot day for that one section."

Carl Harders developed the look of the robot and the lighting, with David Hackett and Milton Ramirez lighting each shot and helping with the scene integration, Lines adds. Brett Angelillis and Raymond Popka created all the CG debris and FX, adding an extra layer of realism to the spot.

Other major scenes for Lines and his team included the Forza open road section, and the soccer stadium in Budapest. "For the Forza section, we had to change the background of each shot to include a snowy mountain range and rolling hills," Lines says. "This was done with detailed matte paintings by Laurent Ben-Mimoun. This gave the section more scale and a beautiful cinematic look. For the soccer stadium we shot a small stadium in Budapest with around 200 extras, but it lacked the scale and grandeur of what the spot required. Our CG team in London built a fully CG stadium and filled it with cheering Liverpool fans, using Massive crowd simulation software."

"Overall, this shoot was something special," Crowe concludes. "We work a lot with Crispin and Bryan Buckley and always have a great experience. There is a lot of trust so we discuss everything openly to come up with the best creative solutions. I think that always is evident in the final commercial."