Jackie Chan untagged: a digital stand-in helps the martial arts action star achieve his latest stunt.(Digital Video)

In a new "Go Tagless" TV ad campaign to promote the Hanes Tagless Undershirt, action star Jackie Chan becomes so irritated by his itchy T-shirt tag that he performs daring acrobatic feats in an effort to scratch the offending area.

In the commercial, which is now airing, Chan is shown fighting with an animated tag on the back of his shirt. In an attempt to escape from the persistent rubbing, Chan runs up a pole and becomes suspended in midair.

"It's a visually unique spot," says Eliza Randall, executive producer at Hydraulx in Santa Monica, California, and a member of the supervision team on set. "The use of digital effects to advertise a product is certainly a departure for a manufacturer like Hanes." The spot's concept, which promotes the idea that tagless is better, was conceived by the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. The agency contracted Hydraulx, which worked with director Matthew Rolston of HSI Productions/Venus Entertainment, to generate the visual effects.

The team filmed Chart with three cameras positioned at three points of an arc around a stage, simultaneously shooting Chan's performance from all three angles. In the final spot he runs up a pole, and the action freezes except for his arm, which continues scratching and battling the pesky tag. Hydraulx employed multiple camera positions to produce a 3D move around the actor's body in a Matrix like style.

With the use of Maya from Alias Systems, the group generated a CG version of Chan from a combination of motion footage, stills, and a 3D scan the team performed on set. The sequence is live action until the movement freezes. Then, the scene transitions from the live Jackie Chan to his 3D stand-in during the course of the camera move, which ends close to his head and hand as he fights with the tag. In the subsequent shot, Chan reverts to real time, flips off the pole, and lands back on his feet.

To generate the ...