Faced with the challenge of establishing an emotional connection between a jaded audience and a commercial about an ordinary ceramic salt shaker, Toronto-based AXYZ created a memorable piece using Houdini as their CG tool of choice.

DDB Canada, for Knorr, needed to promote a product line called “Sidekicks” that contained less sodium than its predecessor. A sad and dejected salt shaker named Salty became the hook of the ad, as he wanders aimlessly through the rain in search of a new place to belong. As Salty realizes his future is bleak, he starts crying tears made of salt as Michael Bolton’s “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” plays in the background. Heart-wrenching.

The design of Salty was pre-determined by the client and AXYZ’s challenge was to bring this cute yet inanimate object to life. The overall project involved rigging, animation, lighting and effects - and to deliver all these requirements AXYZ turned to Houdini for the complete pipeline. “AXYZ Animation is an all Houdini shop, we use it for everything” declares John Coldrick, a partner at AXYZ.

Bringing Salty to Life

To begin, the pre-existing design of Salty had to be rigged and animated. “Due to the stubby nature of the character, a traditional capture rig would not work” explains John. “Houdini allowed us to procedurally build a cage capture that allowed for clean deformations of the character”.

Houdini Digital Assets provided a simple pipeline that helped AXYZ manage different versions of the Salty character. AXYZ’s more experienced artists were primarily involved in creating the commercial however digital assets made it possible to delegate the customized shading portion of the pipeline to artists with no previous exposure to it and with a minimal amount of training. The assets provided a framework that works well with a small team that requires an efficient means of collaborating and an effective means of managing changes and updates.

“All of the shots with Salty, as well as those including Pepper were created using a Salty asset that contained the rigged character for the animation,” says John. “A matching asset designed especially for shading referenced in the animation data in order to keep the process agile. This way shading and animation changes could happen simultaneously.”

In the shot where a dejected Salty hangs his head in sorrow and grainy tears of salt stream from his eyes, AXYZ used Houdini’s particle and dynamics tools. These grains of salt were created using a simple Particle operator which was simulated inside integrated dynamics environment. The effects team also added raindrops for scenes where Salty wandered outside.

Physically-Based Rendering with Mantra

Mantra played an integral role in creating the photorealistic look required to make this an effective spot. Salty had to look realistic, not cartoonish and it would be very obvious if it didn’t look just right. Being a clear-coated ceramic object, Salty had to be well lit and properly integrated into the live action plates without the aid of moody, theatrical lighting, or color variations. For this commercial, the realism would come primarily from the illumination and the reflective material qualities of the ceramic.

“Our set reference images were not perfect but we were able to extend regular non-High Dynamic Range images to create pretty nice looking lighting with one environmental light and some emitting geometry,” says John. “Render times with motion blur and Depth of Field were quite fast - about 15 minutes for a typical shot at HD resolution. Mantra’s Physically Based Rendering offered us fast render times and delivered great looking shots!”

This commercial from AXYZ is indeed a well crafted piece which connects with viewers emotionally. It is also a perfect example of how all of Houdini’s tools working together can lead to amazing results. From character rigs, to particles, to dynamics and rendering with Mantra, AXYZ was able to meet their client’s needs while creating a high quality viewing experience for the television audience.

UPDATE

Salty has now gone viral as AXYZ has created three new spots that show us how the little salt shaker is getting on in his new life.

Salty is now on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also now purchase your own Salty and Pepper shakers.