For a recent spot for the nfl, Montreal’s Buzz Image Group used motion-capture technology to bring to life Zortrac – an emotionally turbulent video-game character – to assist the league in its efforts to raise football awareness among youngsters.

Buzz was enlisted by New York agency Margeottes/Fertitta & Partners to create animation and effects for the spot, designed as part of the nfl’s Play Football initiative. The agency saw the video-game framework as a way to engage the desired audience of preteen boys and built the spot around the menacing video-game protagonist whose only fear is the draw of football for his young audience .

The spot began with the idea of a low-resolution ’70s-style video game, but Buzz steered the agency toward a more modern, high-res look reflective of the current state of video games, using an anime style for the character.

The spot opens with the monstrous Zortrac, Master of the Alpha Nine Galaxy, whacking an alien opponent and announcing that he ‘fears nothing’ except being left alone in his world when a fine autumn day draws the kids outside to play. When he realizes he is alone, Zortrac turns despondent and needy, with the final insult coming as be smashes his head against the inside of the monitor where he is trapped.

Buzz producer Louis Morin oversaw the company’s animation team, which included motion-control and special-effects supervisor Martin Desrochers and designer Nicolas Drolet, who collaborated on the 30 seconds of animation produced for the spot.

Buzz used the proprietary FilmBox motion-capture system from Montreal’s Kaydara and worked at Kaydara’s motion-capture studio, which had not typically been open to commercial projects before.

The agency sent a production team to shoot the live-action component, directed by Stephen Bower.

Buzz used FilmBox to generate roughs of moves like kicks and walking, with an eight-sensor suit worn by the actor going through Zortrac’s motions (for example, banging his head into a piece of wood to capture the misery of Zortrac’s noodle knocking near the end of the spot) and then rough edges were removed and final cg animation, created using Sofimage, added over the skeleton.

To create a sense of heightened realism, Buzz then compressed the initial 10 seconds of animation into five seconds.

‘The beauty of the [FilmBox] software is that you can blend animations,’ says Morin.

Drolet worked from the 3D animated models and created layouts in 2D with PhotoShop and Illustrator.

The Buzz team also included Jean-Raymond Bourque, manager, image creation and processing, animators Francois Gilbert, Dominique Daigle, Francois Lord, Mario Fraser and Richard Poissant, compositor Matthieu Dupuis, editor Pierre Moffatt and project coordinator Marie-Josee Huot.