The Mill teamed up with Wieden+Kennedy (Portland) to retell a classic tale set in today’s modern age of handheld devices and on-demand tax services. Humpty’s latest debacle was presented in three parts in TurboTax’s campaign for Super Bowl LI, starting with a fall that started it all.
With a real person’s face and an oversized model of an egg to work with, The Mill’s task was to create Humpty as a photo-real character.
“Our main creative challenge was to create Humpty in three distinct stages of repair: the first stage takes place immediately after Humpty falls off the wall, with shell, egg yolk and his eyes and mouth scattered in a mess on the ground,” explains The Mill’s James Allen, Shoot Supervisor and Lead 2D Artist. “The second stage sees the aftermath of the Kingsmen’s unsuccessful attempt to put him back together, and in the final stage, Humpty’s in the hospital.”
From a technical standpoint, James says, “The challenge was marrying a solid egg with a real, moving face as it spoke. It took considerable stabilizing and morphing to achieve a seamless composite.”
See what happens to Humpty in the next spot. Here’s to hoping for no more walls in his future.