A sheep pokes their head out of a moving car window

We're Different Because You're Different

To launch a brand that’s different from the herd requires an equally unique brand mascot. Enter Annie the sheep for Cox Mobile – a headstrong, yet lovable, free spirit who is destined to follow her own path. 

Animation
Animation Supervisor
Creatures

Airing during the Super Bowl LVII pregame show, Annie’s adventures are aptly set to the tune of Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ as she ventures through town on the hunt for new experiences.

Working closely with creative agency FCB Chicago and celebrated director Daniel Kleinman, Framestore was responsible for on-set shoot supervision, creation of the hero character (complete with her lightning bolt tattoo) and background sheep, compositing of the characters into each scene, environmental matte paintings, and final cleanup.

Cox Mobile Still
Cox Mobile Still

In a project that usually requires twice the allotted time frame, a team of creature FX specialists animated over 40 individual sheep across the campaign using Maya, Houdini, as well as proprietary grooming and creature FX tools that factor in skeletal and muscle layers to build the characters.

“Seeing Annie come to life across such a large campaign for Cox Mobile has been incredible,” said Jordan Carroll, VFX Supervisor at Framestore. “Given the time constraints, technical challenges and effort to push the bar, we are incredibly proud of the work the team put in to bring the animal to life.” 

Final color grade was completed by colorist Simon Bourne of Company 3.

Cox Mobile Still
Cox Mobile Still

Credits

Agency
FCB Chicago
Production
Rattling Stick
Director
Daniel Kleinman
VFX
Framestore
Executive Vice President
Executive Producer
Brian Smego
Producer
Simon Jensen
Head of Production
Cat Pavitt
Associate Producer
Alex Roesch
Production Coordinators
Kaitlyn Gorman, Vicky Pagdin
VFX Shoot Supervisor
Jules Janaud
VFX Supervisor / Head of 2D Chris
Chris Beers
VFX Supervisor / Head of CG
Jordan Carroll
CG
Gabriela Pruszkowska, Bruno Reis Coimbra, Ashley Reemul, Anton Blake, Adam Bailey, Maya Dumond, Joao Lourenco, Gabriela Ruch Salmeron, Clara Simone, Bruno Buzinkay, Russel Miller, Victor Uhal, Dan bruce, Rebecca Teichner, CK Lu, Ryan Wang
CG
Ariana Ziae-Mohseni, Matt Sackley, Joshua Merck, Caleb Ollivant
Comp
Artem Voronoff, JinHee Aloi, Megan McGuire, Min Hwa Jung, Sang Kim, Joseph Taylor, Nasser Mandavisobi
Flame Finish
Matt Dobrez, Amanda Elliott
VFX Editor
Johnny Kachenmeister
Post/Audio
456 Studios
Color
Company3
Colorist
Simon Bourne