Digital Domain created the TV spot “Take Down The Terror,” by Mothership’s Neil Huxley for Draftfcb San Francisco, with VFX from Digital Domain, that launched EA’s Dead Space 3. This behind-the scenes video looks at the entire process, from storyboards through look development, virtual production and VFX creation. Huxley approached Draftfcb’s concept like a short film, shooting live action and virtual cameras to bring greater humanity to Clarke’s character and a feel of reality to the piece. Digital Domain, under the direction of Visual Effects Supervisor Aladino Debert, created the snowy world of Tau Volantis and the cinematic lighting.

Huxley shot Gunner Wright, the actor who plays Isaac Clarke in the Dead Space franchise, performing the role, and a traditional mocap shoot to capture body action. Together with Digital Domain, he then did a virtual-camera shoot, to capture the action of the character walking in snow, shooting the CG environment as if they were shooting live in the real environment. All of the shoots were done at Digital Domain’s in-house virtual production studio. Digital Domain then created sophisticated, realistic-looking snow, fog, and heavy particle effects, to make it feel as if Clarke were in an icy windstorm, and blended the live-action face with the CG environments. They integrated Isaac’s suit, a low-res game asset, into the environment by adding ice and frost to the mask, and having the character breath visible vapor.