The studio's work for the teaser campaign is comprised of a
four-phased lower-thirds campaign and a sports interrupter campaign.
For the lower thirds ads, which run at the bottom of the screen during the
course of Fox programming, Buster animated the famed glowing eyes of the Terminator
robot. These initial lower thirds regularly played during a number of network
programs. The red eyes slowly appeared and then disappeared without
explanation.
The second, third and fourth phases of the lower thirds
campaign evolve further to reveal the eyes in more detail, as well as hints of
the Terminator's metallic skull. They then prompt viewers to visit the show's
promotional Website, www.takebackthefuture.com.
For the sports interrupter campaign, Buster created a piece
that seems to interrupt the network's NFL football broadcasts. Viewers see from
the Terminator's point of view, scanning the crowd during a game, looking for either
Sarah or John Connor. After the spots end, there is a return to the normal sports
program.
Maxon Cinema 4D was used to model the facial structure of
the Terminator. Adobe After Effects 8.0 was used to composite and animate the
rest of the elements. Software ran on Mac systems with Intel quad-core
processors.
Buster credits include executive creative director/executive
producer Jonas Morganstein, creative director/head of production Kurt Spenser and line
producer Brandon Pleus.