Pedal to the Metal

A sedan speeds through a harsh, metal desert in a new TV commercial from DMB&B; Detroit for General Motors’ Pontiac Grand Am. In the ad, which began airing this month, a Grand Am races past metal cactuses and a steel armadillo and swerves to avoid intricate metal tumbleweeds. A look at how Venice-based special-effects firm Digital Domain created the ad:

1. The agency wanted the spot to show that the Grand Am could navigate a tough environment, said Ray Giarratana, the commercial’s director. Designers decided a metal desert would best showcase the car’s tenacity, he said. Artists created the entire ad--including the car--by computer. In the past, artists have shied away from using computer graphics to draw cars for fear they would look fake, Giarratana said.

2. To draw the car, artists pasted masking tape around a Grand Am, concentrating the tape on the car’s curves and tight corners. Then they traced the tape with a pen that sends digital signals through a wire to a software program that charts the car’s shape. Designers used the data to create the digital car.

3. They then worked to create a metal desert, choosing “cold” metal and steel colors as the desert’s backdrop instead of “warm” bronze and gold colors. Artists drew a desert on storyboards and transferred those concepts to the computer. The car was placed in the metal desert, where designers worked to manipulate its speed and driving pattern. Doing the entire commercial in the computer saved designers time and enabled them to make changes more easily, Giarratana said.