ILM’s Sneaky Snowman

In a new spot for Sun Diamond walnuts from Young & Rubicam of San Francisco, a snowman-shaped cookie jar comes to life. When no one is looking, the snowman snatches cookies from a nearby plate and consumes them by removing its head and tossing the cookies inside the jar. Here is how San Rafael, Calif.-based Industrial Light & Magic animated the snowman:

1. Photographers shot an empty cookie plate and a bag of walnuts, taking light readings to be used later. The image was then fed into a computer.

2. Animators created a 3-D wire-frame computer model of a cookie jar and cookies. They used photos of a real cookie jar and cookies as guides.

3. The animators, still working on computers, shaded in the wire-frame model and added the background.

4. Finally, the model was brought to life as animators added color, texture and shading. Slight imperfections were added to the cookie jar to properly simulate a ceramic surface. The reflections on the jar and shadows on the cookies were created by computer using light readings taken when the plate and walnuts were photographed. ILM director Rick Schultze said the trick was preventing the scene from looking “too perfect for the real world.”