We wanted to bring Smithwick's back to our screens after a 7 year break, in the form of a beer-making photo-real CG red squirrel; alongside a new strapline for the 300-year old brand, 'Experience. It's what you do with it that counts'.

In the 60' TV spot, we follow the Smithwick's squirrel at the brewery, after the Master Brewers have left, as he is seen toiling with craft and precision, firing up boilers, sniffing hops and tunring valves to brew a thimbleful of ale before they return.

Taking 3 months of production, the spot uses a combination of live action and bespoke CGI animation to bring to life the cinematic world of the brewery in which our CG animated squirrel is seen crafting the perfect pint.

It was both a creative and technical project. We comped numerous assets including the CG squirrel itself, fire (matches), dust, flares and light rays. The close up of the squirrel's eye was a particularly technical aspect. Every single layer that could be was added to make the eye look photo real.

Houdini was used to generate the fur and developed a whole new workflow within the software to enable us to update animation and simulation painlessly. We even developed custom wrinkle and skin deformers for the squirrel.

We rebuilt many of the live action backgrounds using a combination of 3D and matte painting to give a more cinematic result in the lighting.