STEELE VFX RE-ENGINNEERS CHICKENS FOR BK

SANTA MONICA - Steele VFX (www.steelevfx.com) reinvented the chicken in providing visual effects and animation services for a new spot "Maybe not" for Burger King via Campbell-Mithun, Minneapolis.

The spot opens on two boys sitting in a Burger King restaurant and examining their lightning bolt and star-shaped chicken tenders. "I wonder where they come from," says one. A barnyard of the boys' imagination appears populated by two odd-looking varieties of fowl, one whose bodies are shaped like stars, the other with lightning-like zigzag backbones. Back in the restaurant, the boys dismiss the vision as preposterous and go back to eating lunch.

Steele VFX produced the distinctive chickens as computer animation. Artists initially produced illustrations and clay models of the chickens. Once approved, 3D computer models were created. Detailed texturing of the chickens' feathers and other features help to create an illusion of reality as does the quirky way the birds move.

Steele VFX also handled 2D effects work for the spot with compositors integrating the animated birds into the live action barnyard background. Steele used NewTek Lightwave 3D for modeling and animation, Adobe After Effects for the pre-compositing and Quantel Henry infinity for Final compositing.