KISS M&M Creator Speaks
October 3, 2009, 14 years ago
NewTek spoke to William Vaughan, Animator Director at Splashlight (and former LightWave 3D Evangelist) about his recent work on the Kiss M&Ms; campaign. A few excerpts from the chat follow:
NewTek: Who was this image created for?
Vaughan: "The illustration was created for BBDO Worldwide’s Inner M&M; campaign, which runs in magazines worldwide. In the past, Splashlight created M&M; characters of sportscasters Howie Long and Jimmy Johnson for a Super Bowl-themed advertisement. They also created M&M; characters of country music stars BROOKS & DUNN."
NewTek: How long did it take to create the artwork?
Vaughan: "It took about a week to model the characters and their props, and another week for lighting and surfacing. The details in the boots and guitars took the longest to model, as it was important to capture every detail. As usual, we used subdivision modeling to keep the polygon count as low as possible, both for rendering speed and maximum flexibility. We used another month for revisions involving both LightWave and Photoshop."
NewTek: Did the band see the image?
William: "They certainly did. Paul Stanley, in particular, was quite involved, going as far as to provide art direction faxed from his hotel room in South America. To explain further, he was displeased with the way that his hair was originally created, and sent along his own sketch showing a fluffier hairstyle. It turns out that he draws very well, and his input helped us considerably."
Read the entire interview here.
