Bringing Fernando to Life

2024

Category | 3D Animation, Motion Capture

Tools | MAYA, Zbrush, Subtance Painter, Mixamo, OptiTrack

Studio | Madwell LLC - WLab Virtual Production

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Overview

Fernando the Crocodile is Fernet-Branca USA’s playful mascot. Our team creates short, fun videos for TikTok and Instagram Reels where Fernando appears in funny, eye-catching situations. We collaborated with the marketing team, producing six videos every week to stay active in the platform algorithms and closely track social media trends. The goal is to build a bold, recognizable brand voice—similar to Duolingo’s mascot—while entertaining audiences and strengthening Fernet-Branca’s connection with its social media community.

Selected Videos

Technical Details

We start by designing the character based on our creative direction, then build a fully rigged character with blendshape-based facial expressions.

Every week, our team produces 3D animations based on current social media trends. Depending on the complexity of each reel, we animate characters using either manual keyframing or by uploading Fernando to Mixamo. We also use motion-capture (mocap) to accelerate the keyframing process, improving production efficiency. Most props and models are sourced from online asset libraries and adapted as needed for each animation.

Credits

I worked as a 3D Generalist on this project, where my responsibilities included weight painting, as well as handling various tasks each week—from environment modeling to animation and lighting. I also responsible for communicating with others under art department, ensuring that all the videos we produce maintain a consistent style.

more behind the scene…

me in the video at the beginning

Creative Directors: Tommy Wu, Matt Fry

Social Lead: CR Cho

3D Art: Shentong Yu, Seyeon Jeong, Yuanpeng Cheng