McDonalds Mini Showdown

For the "Star Sticks" launch for McDonald's Canada, we turned NHL legends Auston Matthews and Conor McDavid into miniature 3D characters. The challenge was to move away from a plastic toy aesthetic and create something more stylised and cool. Following an extensive R&D and concept phase, we landed on the unique characters seen in the final film.

We started with 3d scanned models of the players captured on set, which we then adapted to the commercial's stylised look. The restaurant environment was rebuilt in CG using photographic projection and high-poly models.

For the stop-frame animation look that best suited the piece rather than the "fluid" look of standard CG, we animated on twos and ones in select places. This stop-motion effect gave the film fast-paced energy, allowing for hyper-expressive poses.

To further enhance the piece we developed custom solvers for the lightning and ice spray. Rather than using standard physics, these FX elements were specifically art-directed to match the stepped animation style of the characters - bringing the whole piece to life.