
Dogs can't fight off fleas and ticks by themselves. But in FRONTLINE Plus' Fight Like a Little Green Man, the Nice Shoes Creative Studio partnered with Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness to imagine a scenario in which a dog could battle fleas as effectively as FRONTLINE Plus' formula, personified by its trademark clan of little green men. The challenge to solve was how to get a dog to behave like a ninja. Rather than attempting to train an actual dog in martial arts, Creative director Harry Dorrington proposed a scenario in which live action footage and a photoreal 3D dog were brought together, imbuing the heroic canine with the skills needed to fight off pesky parasites. Dorrington has aided Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness in crafting the FRONTLINE Plus ninjas across multiple campaigns, so he was well positioned to impart the ways of the ninja. Watch the results here: https://vimeo.com/124876496
Saatchi & Saatchi SVP Creative Director Carol Fiorino commented We wanted to do something that would bring a new dimension to the campaign so we developed the Fight Like a Little Green Man story that involved having a real dog mimicking the Little Green Men ninja moves as he's being attacked by fleas and ticks. We enlisted the talent of Harry Dorrington at Nice Shoes Creative Studio to tackle this challenging CG animation sequence. Harry managed to combine live action with CG seamlessly to create totally believable and graceful choreography of a beagle doing Kung Fu moves in mid air. We love the outcome!
For this action packed spot, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness teamed Harry up with live-action director Warren Kushner of K Films. The team executed an approach in which the dog was filmed at a high frame rate with the Phantom 4K Flex and RED cameras and also capturing the dog with a 3D scanner. The scan was produced by Ron Bedard of Industrial Pixel LA.
The dog was trained to perform certain moves, but there's obviously a few restrictions in trying to capture a dog roundhouse kicking a flea, said Dorrington. The information that we captured in-camera along with the data from scanning became the basis of the more ambitious moves, which we then keyframe animated.
The Creative Studio team collaborated on new animations executing the dog's moves in Maya while also utilizing Maya fur to realistically portray the dog's coat. It was rendered in Arnold and composited in Nuke. They then animated the FRONTLINE Plus ninjas taking out their flea enemies, which had to be rendered with anatomic precision. Finally, the spot was graded by Nice Shoes colorist Chris Ryan, who provided a natural look to the piece that helped unify the live action and visual effects.
We had a lot of details going into how the dog's skin and eyes move in order to make him look realistic, but we also needed to bring in a bit of character into his performance while making it consistent with the live action shots. I've collaborated with Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness on quite a few of these. This project was one of the most complex, but a lot easier than teaching a dog to punch and kick, concluded Dorrington. After all, you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Credits:
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness SVP/Creative Director: Carol Fiorino VP/SR Producer: Liz Tagatac Art Director: Bob Buzas Copywriter: Beth Mart Copywriter: Oliver Adriance
Production Company: K Films Director: Warren Kushner Editorial: Blue Rock Editor: John Maloney
VFX & Post Production: Nice Shoes Creative Studio Creative Director: Harry Dorrington Producer: Nancy Giandomenico VFX Supervisor: Ivan Pribicevic Colorist: Chris Ryan
About Nice Shoes:
N ice Shoes offers end-to-end production and post-production solutions for brands, marketers, and advertising agencies alike. As a creative partner, Nice Shoes has helped our clients to perfect the marketing of nearly every household brand name in America. We are equally adept working from concept through completion or anywhere in-between, including production, design, color, finishing or visual effects. Discover what drives us, here: www.niceshoes.com.
###
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
21/10/2025
Visual Data announces the appointment of Maz Al-Jumaili as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Localization, to advance client engagement, strategic partnerships, ...
21/10/2025
As Amazon's Prime Video prepares to launch its coverage of NBA basketball under a major new deal, Grup Mediapro has announced that it is working with the st...
21/10/2025
ATLANTA Good news for consumers using an Atlanta DTH receiver to watch ATSC 3.0: with a new software update, they will be able to blanket their homes with Wi-Fi...
21/10/2025
While recent news has been heavily focused on Hispanic migration into the U.S., The 2025 Hispanic Market Report from Claritas highlights the fact that this gr...
21/10/2025
MAIDENHEAD, UK RWS has hired Michael Wayne as its head of media and entertainment in Los Angeles where he will lead the company's media localization busines...
21/10/2025
Imagine Communications and Rohde & Schwarz today announced a definitive agreement under which Imagine will acquire Pixel Power Limited, a wholly owned subsidiar...
21/10/2025
Atlanta DTH (ADTH) today announced a major update that will expand the functionality of its NEXTGEN TV receiver by enabling gateway capabilities allowing viewer...
21/10/2025
Heartland Video Systems, Inc. (HVS), a premier video systems integration, consulting, and expert ATSC 3.0 implementation firm announces that it has partnered wi...
21/10/2025
QuickLink, the leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest integration solutions, today announced the appointment of Austin Hinton as it...
21/10/2025
nternet connectivity startup Miri Technologies Inc. will use this week's NAB Show New York as the launch pad for its latest ground-breaking innovation, the ...
21/10/2025
In today's evolving media landscape, audience measurement isn't one-size-fits-all. With multiple measurement providers now available, networks need the ...
21/10/2025
21 Oct 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan to Acquire Online Classifieds Busines...
21/10/2025
October 21st, 2025
Tribeca Films to Release Independent Comedy Serious People...
21/10/2025
Synthogy is excited to announce the launch of Ivory 3 LE Uprights - Modern & Vintage, the latest addition to our game-changing Ivory 3 platform. This Legacy Ed...
21/10/2025
Series from Sony Music Vision Features Exclusive Performances From Legendary Bas...
21/10/2025
Tuesday 21 October 2025
Current slide, 0 0, undefined1
0
Download assets
Buying a home ranks above becoming a parent as a key rite of passage into adulthood...
21/10/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils Monster Mash in Trailer of Troll 2' - the...
21/10/2025
Back to All News
For the Fans! Netflix Goes Golden Forging Unprecedented KPop ...
21/10/2025
How can businesses close the AI adoption gap? Start with your recruitment teams, new LinkedIn research shows Published on Oct 21, 2025 Categories: Data and in...
21/10/2025
Synchron Stage Reverb SO: free for Focusrite customers Bring the sound of Vienna's legendary recording stage into your music, free for all Focusrite custo...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...