The coddled world of the Pillsbury Dough Boy is rocked in a recent spot out of Leo Burnett which features a giant, significantly less lovable dough-creature who gives DB more to worry about than a finger in the belly.

Toronto’s Spin Productions was charged with handling the Dough Boy in a new action environment, working to rigorous stipulations from the client (a Dough Boy ‘expert’ was sent to Spin from the company’s Minneapolis head office to maintain maximum character integrity), and creating a scary-but-not-too-scary-to-make-kids-cry adversary.

The live-action base of the spot was shot by Avion’s Jef Renfro using wide-angle lenses, which provided the stylized, close-up look of the spot as well as a challenge at the CG stage; when the lensing was matched in CG, there was significant distortion of the DB’s dimensions. To compensate, Spin artists had to cheat Renfro’s lensing and position periodically. Shooting with a moving camera meant that tracking points also had to be used (and later removed) to facilitate the use of motion-tracking software and motion tracking eyeballed to match DB to camera movements and angles.

Spin built the Monster Cookie from scratch, paying close attention to heft and texture. The team also had to create additional cg elements, like a rolling pin and salt and pepper shakers for DB to interact with as he is pursued.

The Gear: Houdini was used for animation and final compositing was done in Quantel Henry, with some of the effects using a combination of 2D and 3D. For example, a scene which shows the birth of the Monster Cookie used live-action dough footage combined with a CG growing sequence to add realism.

The Artists: Renfro directed the live action, Spin director was Joe Sherman, animation directors were Kyran Kelly and Dave Geldart. Kelly, Marg McGhie and Peter Thorup animated and Gary Thomas and Tina McGill were Henry artists. Brian Noon edited at Flashcut.