In the rush of 2016 holiday spots you may have missed this one (we did): the migratory adventures of an intrepid Scandinavian Robin brought to life in impeckable feathery detail by Rogue director Sam Brown and the VFX crew at The Mill in London.

Mill creative director Jorge Montiel: “Working with specialists in robin behavior helped us with our detailed observation of the classic behaviors of the robin. We then worked to match these behaviors to the various settings and experiences the protagonist in the story faced.

“The way robins move, their size and their lack of facial expressions meant that the bird’s personality had to be evoked almost entirely through it’s body language. This had to then be linked directly to changes in environment and the birds’ interaction with the things around him.

“Every little breath, heartbeat, twitch had to be present, and in time; allowing this tiny creature to take centre stage amongst the dramatic landscapes behind him.

Lead 3D Artist Adam Droy explains, ‘Building on our previous knowledge of feather work, we knew that creating a photo-real robin was going to be our most demanding bird job to date.

“With that in mind, we went about crafting a bespoke feather tool that would allow us to create such accurate feather simulations, down to the micro details such as how many barbs a feather has, how soft they feel and how each feather reacts to the light.”

Agency: adam&eveDDB
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Directors: Ben Tollett, Richard Brim
Copywriter: John Long
Art director: Matt Gay
TV Producer: Jack Bayley
Head of Design: Alex Fairman
Designers: Paul Reddington, Marek Charytonowicz, Andrew Murray
Digital Producer: Jenny Smart

Production: Rogue Films
Director: Sam Brown
Producer: James Howland

VFX & Design: The Mill
Executive Producer: Alex Fitzgerald
Producer: Tom Manton
Creative Director: Jonathan Westley (Wes)
Shoot Supervisor: Hitesh Patel
Head of Animation: Jorge Montiel
2D Lead Artists: Jonathan Westley (Wes), Gary Driver
Lead 3D Artist: Adam Droy
2D Artists: Milo Paterson, Nina Mosand, Grant Connor
3D Artists: Andreas Graichen, Hugo Jackson, James Mulholland, Adrian Meyer, Amaan Akram, Andrew Bartholomew, Ashley Tilley, Aziz Kocanaogullari, Finlay Crowther, Luca Cantani, Margaux Huneau, Matthew Kavanagh, Michael O’Donoghue, Nick Smalley, Will Burdett, Alain Thay, Jasmine Ghoreishi, Alberto Lara, Philip Maddock, Matt Evans, Paul Donnellan, Sergio Xisto, Sebastian Braende, Antonio Filippin, Kieran Ashley Russell, Ian Potsos
R&D: Craig Davies
Design: Aurelien Ronceray, Cameron Johnson
Concept: Jimmy Kiddell, Marco Iozzi

Editorial
Editing company: Trim
Editor: Paul Hardcastle
Editor Assist: Edward Hanbury