The Most Stylish Zebra We've Ever Seen Stars in Zesty New B&Q Spot

The Mill worked with Dom & Nic, WCRS and Outsider on B&Q’s new ‘Let’s Create’ campaign. Encouraging DIY fans to think like the star of the ad, an anthropomorphic zebra, and get more creative in the home; the 30 second spot introduces viewers to Fred who begins by telling us that his parents “aren’t fans of colour” and that they “live their lives in black and white.” Fred, on the other hand, quite clearly thinks in colour and we see him using B&Q’s colour matching service to help him create his new colourful home.

VFX Supervisor Mike Chapman comments, “We had a lot of fun with this spot creating a whole family of augmented photo-real zebras full of human personalities. To ensure the believability and characterisation, we worked from the live action references of real performers delivering their lines on set wearing prosthetic model heads, created by Millennium FX. Seeing how Dom & Nic directed each character on set further helped define each zebra’s personality, which our team of animators then brought to life as CG head replacements.”

The Mill’s ECD Neil Davies comments, “It was a real pleasure to work with WCRS and was another creative opportunity to once again collaborate with Dom & Nic. I am incredibly proud of the amazing team on this project; they not only turned it around in very little time, but created an utterly photo-real family of zebras, full of subtle animation charm.”

Full Credits

Agency: WCRS

Producer: Hannah Needham 

Creative Director: Katy Hopkins, Steve Hawthorne 

Creatives: Jo Griffin, Tom Dixon 

Account Director: Lucy Nebel 

Production Company

Production Company: Outsider 

Director: Dom & Nic 

Producer: John Madsen 

Director of Photography: Alex Barber 

Editing Company: Final Cut 

Editor: Ed Cheesman 

Editor's Assistant: Kit Wells 

VFX & Design: The Mill

Executive Producer: Reece Ewing, Misha Stanford-Harris 

Producer: Elena Pagliei 

VFX Supervisor: Mike Chapman

Executive Creative Director: Neil Davies 

Head of Animation: Jorge Montiel 

3D Lead Artist: Mike Chapman 

2D Artists: James MacLachlan, Gianluca Di Marco, Stefan Susemihl, Fergal Hendrick, Eleanor Risdon, Rebecca Clay, Gavin Marler 

3D Artists: Peter Agg, Sergio Xisto, Adam Darrah, Adam Dewhirst, Will Burdett, Benoit Gielly, Philip Maddock, Ashley Reemul, Ashley Tilley, Finlay Crowther, Jack Harris, Marta Carbonell, Alberto Lara, Anthony Northman, Adam Droy, Michael O’Donoghue, Philippe Moine, Jacob Gonzales, Thomas Bourret, Nick Smalley, Bridget Warrington 

Colour: The Mill 

Colourist: David 'Luddy' Ludlam 

Modelling: Millennium FX