Proving effective holiday spots don’t always have to trigger your tear ducts, director Ulf Johansson and the creature animation teams at The Mill in London and Bangalore strut their stuff for UK department store chain TK Maxx.

Produced thru Wieden+Kennedy London and powered by a sanitized version of Eve’s 2001 hit “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” ft. Gwen Stefani, the spot is a compact lesson in fur and feather grooming with a side course in cloth simulation.

Ed Taylor, VFX supervisor at The Mill: “Having never tried to dress an alpaca in a pullover or a duck in a pair of back to front boxer shorts, some of the early challenges faced were uniquely modeling the human clothes to ‘almost’ fit the animals. There was a fine balance between the clothes not fitting, and a tailored outfit feeling too perfect.”
 
 

 
Client: TK Maxx

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy London
CD: Philippa Beaumont, Freddy Taylor
Creative: Liam Abraham, Charlie Hood
Producer: Chloe Bradley

Production: Smith and Jones Films
Director: Ulf Johansson
EP: Philippa Smith
DoP: Andrzej Sekula
1st AD: James Sharpe
Gaffer: Shawn White
Production Designer: Steve Smithwick

VFX/post: The Mill London
ECD: Carsten Keller
CG VFX Supervisor/3D Lead: Kiril Mirkov
2D VFX Supervisor/2D Lead: Edward Taylor
EP: Louise Unwin
VFX Producer: Chloe Ensor
VFX Assistant Producer: Sophie McDonald
Animation Lead: Clementine Supiot
CG Artist: Dimitri Allonneau, Elia Goettlicher, Emre Sumer, Fredrik Macleod, Giacomo Cavalletti, Jean Grandgirard, Judit Lopez, Luca Maccarelli, Mathilde LeGloahec,David Mayhew, Jorge Montiel, Margaux Huneau, Marion Strunck,Vincent Ullman, Maximilian Mallmann
2D Artist: Anthony Jarvis, Ruslan Borysov, Davide Metti, Rafael Vormittag, Vanessa Duquesnay

VFX/post: The Mill Bangalore
Producer: Vikram Salvi
Production Coordinator: Nividita Dakua
DFX Supervisor: Vivek Tekale
Lead: Manoj Palan, Kunal Bendke, Yogesh Ahire, Noushad Kallingal, Asif Ansari, Elangovan Ganeshan, Sagar Rana, Preksha Kumar, Biswajit Tarafder, Sukanta Chakraborty, Uday Kiran, Gowri Velusamy D
Asset Artist: Thirumoorthi Sivakumar, Vivek Mayanglambam, Prakhar Kulshreshtha, Ritika Das, Rakshith U, Aman Kumar Mayur, Akhil Panicker, Animesh Gogoi
DMP Artist: Shanmugavel V, Mohan Rao, Jyothika S, Paresh Kumar Swain, Kanta Singha, Anuboju Avinash, Abhimanyu Singh Tanwar
FX Artist: Ashutosh Shivdas, Gleaces Juvilian, Sooraj A S, Jayasri S, Divyansh Ashok Gupta
Animaton Artist: Badireddy Sri Charan, Raman Bhatia
Comp Artist: Karthikkeyan M D, Vishal Dadwal
RPM Artist: Kundan Sahu, Prasad Thorve, Ashish Pilaji Gajbhiye, Vishvajeet Kocharekar, Ketan Khairnar, Appu Gowda, Shaik Ravoof Basha, Sandeep Mishra, Anita Khandare, Karan Sharma, Sandeep Vijayrao Dahekar Kumar Ranvir Sinha, Laxman Janardhan Pawar, Kamatham Pavan, Anil Kumar, Vallabhapuram Pavan Teja, Aakansha Yadav, Akshay Suresh Savardekar, Ashish Bhanage, Baljinder Singh, Chetan Shelar, Praneet Vivek Borkar, Sukhwinder Singh, Suraj Vilas More, Vijay Mishra, Vorsu Mahesh, Kanak Kumar, Sangram Londhe, Ankit Panwar Avaneetharan Karuppasamy, Vishal Shirsat, Abhishek Popat Pise, Jampani Amarendra, Kiran Auti, Bineesh T P, Vurukuti Siva Sarweswar, Sayed Hussain, Ram Kumar Sharma

Color: The Mill New York
Colorist: Elodie Ichter
Color EP: Alex Lubrano
Color Producer: Colleen Valentino
Color Assists: Joni Brandenburg, Sam Ommen, Amonnie Nicolas, Caitlin Donaldson, Rory Leighton, Kennedy Dawson

Music: Eve “Let Me Blow Ya Mind”
Label: Ruff Ryders/Interscope Records