Short bumper for television (possibly aimed at running in conjunction with The Simpson).
I modelled, shaded, groomed, rigged, skinned and animated the hamster/creature and wheel my self, and built some simple shadow catching geo to match the set.
The background is the inside of a real CRT television with certain additions created by another colleague. We started off wanting to film the inside with the lights blinking and what not, but due to certain technological issues, I decided it was better to just bracket-photograph the set with the different lighting settings for hdr, and blend/animate them in comp to get more control and higher image quality.
Fun fact: This version is not the one that finally aired, as some wise marketing drones were suddenly worried that people might think we used a real animal, and they would be liable for animal cruelty lawsuits. We ended up massively enlarging the eyes, making them more cartoony overall, and adding silly shoes on his paws. Classy.
Mountain Dew