Client: Delta Airlines
Production: Charlex
Director: Alex Weil
Post: Charlex
CGI: AFCG, Inc.
Date: 1995

This was one of those jobs where most of our CG work was never used.

All we knew at the beginning of the project was that we would be creating a DC-10 jet to be the focus for a Delta Airlines commercial. Charlex and the agency sent us all types of reference materials of the aircraft... photographs, slides, 4x5 chromes, technical drawings, and even corporate spec sheets for appropriate logo application.

We dived in. After purchasing a DC-10 model from Viewpoint, we spent a couple of weeks refining all the data so it would stand up to any close-up shots.

As the project progressed the DC-10 element became less of the focus of the spot, and by the end of the project it was a 5 pixel wide speck with a faint vapour trail barely visible in the background sky.

We ended up sending Charlex a low-resolution object file of the DC-10 that was read into their flame and rendered.

We created this short animation later as an in-house test.