In this campaign for America’s Best, The Mill collaborated closely with director Matt Miller at CapGun Collective and The Richards Group on these spots featuring a fully CG, farsighted owl.
Director: Matt Miller
Production Company: Capgun Collective
Agency: The Richards Group
3D lead, Adam Carroll went through an exhaustive research and development process to get all of the nuance inherent in an owl’s unusual body and behavior. Carroll said “Little did we know, the Chicago Field Museum is the Midwest headquarters for all deceased raptors. Meaning, if a raptor (owl, eagle, falcon, hawk) is to perish in the wild, and is found by any member of the Parks Services, it ends up at the Chicago Field Museum for research and documenting. Lucky for us, though sadly for the birds, they had two recently deceased owls available to us. We were able to analyze both the feather structure and see the bare musculature & skeleton. We took all the measurements and photographs we needed to accurately create our CG version. They are fascinating animals."
The 3D team found a way to mimic the movement of the owl after further careful study of live owls in motion. 3D artist, Ross Scroble said "we agreed that an owl's movement is essentially a grab-bag of subtle, mechanical and stimulus-driven motion. We also found that not all types of owls move alike. We were very certain to only refer to the great horned owl for reference, and add our character and comedy on top of that. It's actually amazing to watch footage of an owl turning it's head while the rest of it's body remains motionless and camouflaged against it's natural environment.”