Coffee & TV Creates 'Charlie The Singing Dog' for Go Outdoors

Coffee & TV were commissioned by Mad Cow Films and creative agency Driven to bring song to the canine star of the Go Outdoors summer 2018 campaign.

Following a live action shoot to capture scenes of a family having fun outdoors, Coffee & TV were tasked with manipulating Charlie the dog, to sing along to Gary Barlow’s hit, Let Me Go.

Coffee & TV’s CGI department sculpted Charlie's head using ZBrush complete with wobbly jowls, facial fur and inner mouth.

The dog was rigged to allow a significant level of facial control in order to produce realistic jaw, mouth, cheek, tongue and eye movements, driven by the lyrics of the song. The real dog was then tracked, ready for the CG head to be animated. After photorealistic lighting and rendering in Arnold, the shots were composited in Flame, including enhancements of the facial animation around the mouth, nose, and eyes.

From the very beginning, Coffee & TV encouraged the Mad Cow production team to shoot the dog behaving as naturally as possible; so the director wasn’t restricted and to allow Charlie's character and sense of joy shine through - which was only enhanced in post.

Jonny Grew, Senior 3D Artist said: “They say never work with children or animals, but this job was a fantastic adventure. The team’s skills pushed our cutting edge technology to the limit to bring Charlie the dog to life.”