A red Toyota 4x4 drives towards the camera away from an exploding volcano.

Runs In The Family

Any one of Toyota’s vehicles can turn an ordinary car-ride into something extraordinary, and Framestore’s campaign for the company, created with Saatchi & Saatchi and directed by Sebastian Strasser, really drives this home. 

Animation
Effects Simulation
Concept Design
toyota jeep coming out of a snowy mountain

Whether following a bored office crew running out to lunch or a father and daughter grabbing breakfast on the way to school, the spots amplify the excitement of the range by turning these everyday excursions into wild, cinematic journeys fit for a blockbuster action film. Surrounded by stealth helicopters, special ops motorcycle riders, volcano explosions and massive avalanches they escape normality for a brief moment - while getting to enjoy the ride.

Lead by VFX Supervisor Michael Ralla, the spots were a collaborative effort between Framestore’s New York and Los Angeles offices.  Framestore worked closely with Strasser from the bidding stage, exchanging ideas, brainstorming and sharing references, and even catching up with him in Berlin, to ensure the entire project ran smoothly from start-to-finish.

back shot of a toyota car

The rapidly paced spots feature a slew of environmental effects, including an exploding volcano, a wall of dust, and most difficult of all, an avalanche, as the team had to add full snow coverage to a mountain scene that was shot during one of the hottest days of summer in California.  A small but selective team offered the right combination of skills and talents, and using a procedural and modular approach, they were able to dissect and simplify the process. Building a proper foundation through extensive data collection during the shoot helped to alleviate time concerns and potential trouble at the tail-end of the job.

front shot of a red toyota car that is followed by four motorcycles
front shot of three people in a car looking out windows

Credits

Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi
Chief Creative Officer
Jason Schragger
Creative Director, Copywriter
Kevin Samuels
Creative Director, Art Director
Seth Rementer
Chief Operations Officer
Lali Koehler
Group Director of Content
Sara Seibert
Sr. Integrated Producer
Holly Otto
Content Producer
Shawna Wilson
Production
RadicalMedia, LLC
Director
Sebastian Strasser
Director Assistant
Ricky Rhodes
Executive Producer
Jim Bouvet
Head of Production
Cathy Dunn
Producer
Kathy Rhodes
1st A.D.
Craig Pinckes
Framestore
VFX
President, Advertising, USA
James Razzall
VFX Supervisor
Michael Ralla
On-Set Supervisor & CG Artist
Sean Dollins
Senior VFX Producer
James Alexander, Morgan MacCuish
Production Coordinator
Diego Bonora
Animation Supervisor
Marco Marenghi
CG Supervisor
Kevin Baker
Modeler
Kui Han Lee
Texture Artist
Kira Yu
CG Intern
Aidan Merryman
CG Artist
Jenny Park
Concept Artist
Steven Messing
Head of Rigging USA
George Saavedra
Composting Supervisor
Alex Villabon
Nuke Artist
Peter Timberlake, Rachel Keyete
FX Lead TD
Vladislav Tushevskiy
Flame
Theo Maniatis, Humberto Reynaga
VFX Editor
Dan McCarthy, Dusty Indrebo, Jonathan Lewis, Jae Park, Jacob Sadowsky
Colourist
Beau Leon
Colour Assist
Evan Reinhard, Nabil Moo
Senior Producer
Andy McLintock
Managing Director
Charles Howell
VFX Producer
Julie Long
Junior Production Coordinator
Zamantha De Gula
Junior Animator
Francisco Dias
Senior Technical Director
Nathan Diehl
FX Technical Director
David Wanger
Junior CG Artist
Mohamed Echkouna
CG FX
Eban Byrne
Lighting TD
Jimmy San, Soo Kyung Kim, Irene Kim
Jr Asset TD
Andrew Trout
Junior Lighter
Nicholas De La Fuente
Concept Artist
Callum Mckeveny
Senior Compositor
Euna Kho
Compositor
Raul Ortego, Sang Kim
Junior Compositor
Elaina Brillantes
Editorial
Cabin Edit
Managing Partner
Carr Schilling
Producer
Liz Lydecker
Editor
Chan Hatcher, Debbie Berman
Assistant Editor
Maria-Celeste Garrahan, Nellie Phillips
SFX
Barking Owl
Creative Director/Partner
Kelly Bayett
Business Manager/Partner
Justin Bayett
Producer
KC Dossett, Liz Lydecker
Assistant Mixer
Roberto Solano
Share this case study