You might not know this, but car commercials don’t always feature the car they’re advertising. Car companies aren’t always super into their new rides storming around dirty mountains. When the physical world is lacking, the digital one can oblige. Many car commercials, even ones you’d swear are real, feature exceptionally realistic computer graphics. 3D modeling can be a bit tricky without a framework to base it on, which is why a lot of animated movies have motion capture actors. If you want a motion capture car, though, there’s only one name in the biz: Blackbird.
VFX and creative content studio The Mill developed the Blackbird to be a sort of skeletal chameleon. The frame of the vehicle can be expanded, retracted, heightened, lowered, and more, all to mimic the general shape of another car model. The electric motor can even be programmed to replicate different engine sounds to make the illusion more authentic. Cameras film the Blackbird doing the driving stunts for the commercial, and then animators overlay the model of the car being advertised. Boom, instant lookalike, and nobody can tell the difference.
The Mill created the Blackbird for the express purpose of aiding car commercial production, and it is loaned out regularly to the big companies. The next car commercial you see might just have a stunt double for its star, not that you could tell.
