How Animatrix Created a Wonderful World of Food for Just Eat

CG animation & VFX studio Animatrix was challenged with creating a realistic looking world of food and imitating stop motion movements with digital animation for Just Eat. Joining forces with creative agency &Co, production company Uitch Iscratch and director Gaute Hesthagen, the project was successfully completed and broadcast in Denmark and Norway.

Miniature figures living and cooking in the world of food - that was the main concept of the film. Stop motion animation, puppets and real food sets had to fulfil the idea first. However, the creative agency decided to use CGI production instead, due to the short implementation time. The video realisation was handed over to Animatrix.

Tomas Juchnevic, the art director of Animatrix, explained: “All the team faced their challenges: animators had to imitate stop motion animation, modellers, texture painters and lighters – a photo-realistic food world. Clients are hypercritical regarding the look of food during the filming or photo-shooting. Here we had to create digital food. Thankfully, everyone coped with the difficulties.”

To save time and maintain high quality, the animation studio used various technologies, including photo scans and 3D mapping.

The first technology was used specifically for the burger. A couple of hundred high resolution photos were taken from different angles - this allowed the team to generate a rough 3D model and textures. A top-down pizza shot was created using 3D mapping: The 3D artist built a rough pizza model and a photo of a real pizza was projected on top of it. Managing Producer of Animatrix, Dovydas Vilkelis, recalled: “After we approved the layout with the client, we made rough lighting, which was imitated during photo-shoot. This solution was highly effective and delivered the best result.”

Despite the short period of time, Animatrix made a convincing and realistic-looking film. Gaute Hesthagen, the director from Uitch Iscratch, commented: “I could not be happier with the final film. It looks amazing and has such a great level of detail and is full of life. The animation was done with passion, a high level of artistry and technical brilliance. For me it’s so important to have collaborators that heighten the concept and execution of the story, and with Animatrix you never go wrong – they just keep pushing the envelope for everyfilm we do.”