Escalating 3D Animation.(USER FOCUS: CG CHARACTERS)

Audiences have been entertained by 3D animals big and small, on the big screen and on the small screen. Recently, Framestore CFC--which brought us Iorek and the rest of the bears in The Golden Compass, and the feathered postmen in the FedEx television commercial "Carrier Pigeon"-delivered some realistic-looking squirrels, one of which has superpowers.

In the world of television and film, it is hardly unusual to see a squirrel perform the impossible, thanks to the power of 3D computer graphics technology. What was so unique about this project was the delivery format; the imagery did not appear on television or film, but rather on digital escalator panels (DEPs) designed to enable the furry rodent to fly up and down the panels installed at 12 major London tube stations.

"Super Squirrels" is a new 30-second spot for Abbey banks, highlighting their Super ISA savings offer. Created by WCRS and directed by Trevor Melvin, the campaign marks the first time Framestore CFC has delivered a project for this type of medium.

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Amid one of the stylized white environments that have become a signature of Abbey's spots, we see some red squirrels rooting around below a pair of oak trees, picking up acorns where they can. One squirrel notices some choice acorns up on a high branch and, realizing that extraordinary measures are required, darts into a handy nearby red Abbey cube. He bursts out, transformed into Super Squirrel, complete with cape and chest emblem.

Speeding through the sky and zipping through the two trees, he makes short work of amassing a splendid collection of acorns. For the final shot, he stands atop his piled-up hoard and hurls the red box towards the camera, where it morphs into the end device.

Supervising the spot was Flame artist Tim Osborne, who has collaborated with Melvin on a number of previous outings for Abbey. "With so much of the spot being created either in Autodesk's Flame or by our 3D team," he says, "the actual shoot consisted largely of my taking many, many shots of the tree (designed by art director Tom Brown), which, having been duplicated, is the scene of much of the action in this spot. The cube, from which the squirrel bursts out, was exploded courtesy of air cannons and filmed using a Photo-Sonics high-speed camera. The acorns that don't interact with the squirrel are CG models, too.