Brief Explanation

These commercials were part of one of the biggest PEPSI campaigns in Japan. Made up entirely of CG dinosaur characters and narrated by some of Japans most well known comedians, this was the launch of an exciting new generation of products from Pepsi. Set in a world when dinosaurs once roamed the earth, the first installment in the series follows two T-Rex dinosaurs who argue over the merits of healthy eating. Our greenT-Rex dinosaur is chastised by the darker T-Rex for eating leaves and herbs when he supposed to be a carnivore. Our green dinosaur is forced to defend himself by convincing him of the virtues of healthy eating otherwise they will surely become extinct. The second in series follows our T-Rex's running for their lives as a volcano erupts and meteors rain down. Our healthy T-Rex explains to the other T-Rex that without good health and exercise they will never survive as he is ironically hit by a falling meteor and sent flying. The third commercial centers around two T-Rex trying to catch a Stegosaurus but are too unfit to catch him. This is all observed by our Triceratops who criticizes our T-Rex's for being unhealthy. This results in a fight which ends in the triceratops beating the T-Rex and ultimately proving his point.

Creative Execution

The first of the series of commercials used live action backgrounds with these plates being shot in the surrounding wild rainforest’s of Tasmania, Australia. These plates were then used as the backdrop to serve the 3D computer generated dinosaurs. Following much research, concept drawings and look development,the Alt vfx team along with the Director/Client were able to finalize the look and feel for the commercial. The Alt vfx team then set about pre-visualizing the entire commercial with dialogue, timing and animation blocked out, complete with the chosen camera angles and lens sizing. This gave the live action production unit a complete map as to how to capture the necessary background elements, complete with interaction of light and vegetation. From this point the Alt vfx team were able to further develop the modelling and rigging of the dinosaurs and evolve the 3D dinosaurs from the pre-visualized phase into final animation, lighting and compositing in Flame and Nuke. The entire 1st commercial was completed in less than six weeks, from pre-visualization to the final version of the commercial. Following on from the success of the 1st commercial, the second instalment was completed in two weeks. For this 15 second commercial the Alt vfx team created a completely CG environment for the dinosaurs, only utilising some existing models. The two week deadline seemed an impossible task, however this gave the team complete control over light and dust interaction in the environment. A pre-visualized edit with rough animation and basic backgrounds was used to approve angles and positioning of the characters within the environment. Sacrificing sleep to meet the two week deadline, the team worked hard to deliver the final product to a very impressed client. The third instalment in the series was a 30 second commercial with a four week deadline from pre-visualization through to final composited commercial. It was again decided to do full CG environments which gave the team complete complete control over the environments. Being the final instalment to the campaign, this commercial was completed From the outset when the Alt vfx team were awarded the job, the clients brief was simple, deliver us world class, feature film quality CG dinosaurs and deliver them in a very tight deadline. The entire TVC campaign for PEPSI was completed over the course of three months and was a huge challenge for the Alt vfx team. There were hurdles along the way with multiple delivery deadlines and client approvals taking place remotely from Japan, but ultimately they proved to be a massive success for Pepsi and was by far one of the biggest visual fx campaigns to roll out across Japan in 2013.