Chick-Fil-A // Tha Billbord
Client // Chick-Fil-A
Director // Nicos Livesey
Production Company // BlinkInk
Assets
Miniatures
We had a series of props built as reference, inspired by the miniature aesthetic. This attention to detail is central to our approach. Rather than scanning, we focus on understanding how things are crafted and applying that knowledge to our CG workflow.
The result is a strong sense of craftsmanship—objects that appear handmade, revealing brush strokes, cut marks, pressing details, and paint thickness. When done consistently, these elements build a cohesive sense of scale and authenticity, creating a style we’re passionate about.
Characters
Development
Each character went through an intensive design process to capture their personality and role within the team. We explored test poses to assess how well they could handle the range of motion needed, from extreme to neutral positions. For the cows, which switch between standing and all-fours, we created two separate models and rigs for maximum flexibility.
Next came look development, involving detailed experimentation with textures and shaders. Staying true to real materials and maintaining a consistent scale (with characters approximately 16-18 cm tall) was essential to achieve the miniature feel of the scenes.
Finally, we enjoyed pushing the characters into expressive poses, further exaggerating their personalities and building on the design work, bringing them fully to life.
Animation
Process
We had a lot of creative freedom with these plasticine-style characters, pushing and stretching poses to bring out their expressiveness. To enhance motion, we added hand-painted motion blur elements and developed a system for achieving extreme motion blur effects. Animators worked within the limitations of a “swap-out” system for mouth shapes, using only pre-made shapes to replicate the feel of stop-motion animation.
Compositing
Enhancing Lighting
This phase required integrating multiple elements: unique character animations, hand-crafted 2D effects, and 3D effects done in a stop-motion style (without simulations to preserve the aesthetic). Changes in lighting were essential to build atmosphere. Our team excelled at seamlessly bringing all these pieces together into a cohesive, visually engaging result.