The third installment of the Bair family’s journey was created by Havas in close collaboration with Directors dom&nic from Outsider. Showcasing the joy of family reunion, this sweet and sentimental spot reminds us of the importance of coming together for the holidays.
In this spot, we follow Heathrow bears Edward and Doris as they travel home to England to celebrate the holidays with their family. We begin by seeing their lives in Florida, characterised by bright sunshine, warmth and beautiful blue water. The scenery is idyllic, however they struggle to get their house into the Christmas spirit. After video calling their family in England, they make the decision to fly home and spend the holidays together.
The spot explores family relationships, especially the love between Doris and Edward, which is showcased during their plane journey as well as in the airport. The focus is also on the appearance of the bears themselves. This year new techniques were developed to enhance the look of their fur and clothing.
Head of 3D Mike Chapman explains ’From a technical standpoint we were posed a few new challenges which upped the level of interaction between the bears and their environment.
We worked on making Edward and Doris's clothing and fur ruffled throughout the fan sequence, passing elements from Maya to Houdini and back again for rendering. We also added to our approach for the clothing by using carbon in Houdini to handle the simulation.
We again used Marvelousdesigner to create the clothing, working with the wardrobe team to pick out appropriate outfits for each bear in each scene, all the way down to the shade of yellow for Edward's budgie smugglers.'
CG Lead Alan Williamson adds ’It’s great to see the characters in new environments along with more close-up shots which really show the high detail in the fur grooms and models. One of the biggest challenges we faced this year was to have Edward apply sun cream to his fur. We used Houdini to create various liquid simulations to develop the right look, thickness and amount of cream. Using the same animation to drive groom guides made it feel as if the cream is really rubbing into the fur.'
Mike summarises 'The whole team once again benefited from the close collaboration with Dom&Nic and Havas, allowing ideas to bounce around contributing to The Bair's best journey yet'.