VFX post-production house, nineteentwenty were tasked with creating a photo real spider for the new Royal Marines commercial, which got their 3D team very excited.

Firstly, the team produced a test of the Salmon Pink Bird Eating Spider to show the agency and director what they could deliver. The process relied on lots of research and development, firstly by studying macro shots of tarantulas. A real spider was used for reference shots in a calibrated lighting environment including macro detail to ensure everything was accounted for. The model build and texture was all based on real life with the groom and hair created in Houdini along with the hair dynamics. The CG team added micro and macro dirt and scattered water droplets to aid the creature’s ability to connect with the humid jungle environment - strong attention to detail was of the essence.

The framing of the background plates was important to create a natural environment for the spider to live within, including plenty of lighting reference so the final render would fit seamlessly. The textures and shaders were built in Mari, Substance and Mudbox allowing their 3D team to spend more time ensuring the groom was correct. 

Chris King, head of 3D explains “Movement, speed and character were produced by rigging and animating in Maya using live action reference of many different varieties of Tarantula, the most important thing to was to make sure the viewer didn’t question its authenticity”.

Overall, it took a team of five CG artists and four 2D artists working on the project over the course of around 10 weeks. Due to the size and detail in frame, final CG renders took up to 4 hours per frame to complete. To achieve an effective process, google cloud rendering was integrated into the pipeline to provide an unlimited scalable render farm. The outcome of creating a 3D spider was without doubt a great achievement, and successfully demonstrated that the spider shots including the macro shots could be created purely in CG.