For a new product like called “Sidekicks”, DDB Canada needed to create a cute salt shaker that realized his time is up in the face of new low-sodium foods. AXYZ created the character “Salty”, and discusses the process with SideFX.
“All of the shots with Salty, as well as those including Pepper were created using a Salty asset that contained the rigged character for the animation,” says John. “A matching asset designed especially for shading referenced in the animation data in order to keep the process agile. This way shading and animation changes could happen simultaneously.”
In the shot where a dejected Salty hangs his head in sorrow and grainy tears of salt stream from his eyes, AXYZ used Houdini’s particle and dynamics tools. These grains of salt were created using a simple Particle operator which was simulated inside integrated dynamics environment. The effects team also added raindrops for scenes where Salty wandered outside.
i love salty, he is soooo soo cute..