No, it wasn’t a case of the best casting in the history of commercials that was responsible for a toddler discoursing on the serious issues in the lives of his generation for a recent Kellogg’s spot out of Leo Burnett Toronto. Directed by Avion Films’ Ray Dillman, the eerily effective effect was accomplished by the team at Toronto’s Axyz, who delivered English- and French-language versions of 60- and 30-second spots.

The challenge at hand was to have the little actor deliver an engaging speech clearly to the camera – and time was a factor.

Axyz artist John Coldrick says one way to achieve this startling look would be to replace the child’s entire mouth and lower jaw with a cg version – an intensely time-consuming approach.

The route taken by Axyz involved shooting the baby as a background plate then shooting an older child with an appropriately sized mouth and tracking that mouth onto the infant’s face.

Axyz used a neato piece of software that can, without the use of motion control, analyze a freely shot background plate. Using tracking information in 2D, the software is able to calculate a 3D camera environment for either 3D software or Inferno compositing.

During the live-action shoot, six tracking points were placed on the baby’s face and footage was then edited to establish how long each voice-over sequence would be.

The older child was then shot – with the parents holding his head steady while the lines were spoken – and Axyz tracked that mouth in a 3D tracking move that matched the less verbal baby.

Gear: Axyz used 3D Equalizer software from Germany’s Science-D-Visions to handle tracking. Inferno was used for compositing and to enhance the live action and add facial moves.

Artists: At Axyz, Coldrick, Mario Marengo and Virginia Chan handled 3D tracking, and Coldrick, Marengo and Dave Giles composited. David Baxter edited at Panic & Bob. Andre Pienaar was dop.