Pocock Vs The Lion(s)- Amazing Commercial

The 2013 British & Irish Lions Rugby tour to Australia is one of the most anticipated sporting events of the coming year. The clash will be epic – and the TV commercial for the event is just as heroic.

“As lead Flame artist/compositor for the job it was my task to ensure absolute realism for the commercial – especially those shots involving the lion, which was shot on bluescreen half a world away!” said Scott Geersen

“In addition to re-lighting an already-shot, live-action, adult male lion, I undertook such tasks as adding feet to the lion where they were cropped out of frame, removing signage from the stadium, matte painting and re-lighting for the stadium to make the setting more ambiguous, plate cleanups, compositing the boy into shots that were previously sans boy, rebuilding the stadium in some shots in order to project onto geometry and fake camera moves, re-timing of the lion to suit the slow pace of the TVC, and of course the final morph and logo animation.”

Here’s a look a the commercial in full. #lionsyear