Date: 2010
Client: Absolut Vodka
Agency: Method Studios
Role: VFX coordinator
Project: "I'm Here" — A Spike Jonze Short Film
Situation: Visionary director Spike Jonze was creating "I'm Here," a heartfelt science fiction love story for Absolut Vodka, set to premiere at the prestigious 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The film's protagonists were robots with beautiful but physically static, non-expressive masks. The central creative challenge for the team at Method Studios was immense: how to bring the lead robot, Sheldon, to life with a range of subtle, deeply human emotions that would drive the entire story.
Task: As a VFX Coordinator at Method Studios, I was tasked with helping manage the complex workflow for the robot's facial animation. My core mission was to help devise and execute a unique performance capture pipeline that would ensure Spike Jonze's very specific directorial vision for the character's emotions was translated flawlessly into the final CG animation.
Action: To bridge the gap between the director's mind and the final animation, I was entrusted with a unique and critical role in the creative process.
Directorial Performance Capture: I personally filmed director Spike Jonze's face as he performed every nuanced expression for the main character, Sheldon. He acted out the part in perfect sync with the dailies, providing a direct-from-the-source emotional blueprint for the character.
Creating the Visual Guide: I then took this intimate performance footage and superimposed Spike's face over the static robot mask in the edits. This created an invaluable visual guide for our VFX team, showing them frame-by-frame the exact timing and emotion Spike wanted to convey. (Fun fact: the actor inside the robot suit was a then-unknown Andrew Garfield!)
VFX Team Supervision: With this clear directorial guide in place, I then helped supervise the VFX artists as they meticulously animated the CG robot's face, bringing Spike's soulful performance to life in the final character.
Result: This bespoke workflow was a remarkable success. The final film features a robot protagonist with an incredibly soulful and believable emotional range, which became the heart of the film. My direct involvement in capturing and translating Spike Jonze's performance was instrumental in the VFX team's ability to achieve this nuanced result. "I'm Here" premiered to widespread acclaim at Sundance and is celebrated as a landmark piece of short filmmaking and innovative branded content.
