Ian Jacobs has worked in high end motion graphic design for last 15 years, after graduating with a MA in Fine Arts. Ian has been with Windmill Lane for over a year.

Jacobs has designed and directed animation on numerous commercials and title sequences including; Nissan Irish Open, IBTS, Ocean, Eircom, O2, Beckett on Film; in addition to working as a designer and compositor on; Vodafone, Ballygowan, Smithwicks, Meteor, Harp, Bank of Ireland, AIB as well as numerous RTE Idents, title sequences and stings.

My role was to bring a structure to the 30 second spot, working closely with the agency to take us on a short and powerful visual journey with a start, middle and end.

The brief was to develop and create a 'race' scenario based around horses and jockeys made of whiskey. The specific interpretation involved introducing 'shots' of the race from dramatic and unusual camera angles, getting us 'into' the thick of the action, so both the casual viewer and the enthusiastic punter will be able to get a kick from the spot.

We went through a 'Red' phase at the start of the process for about two weeks, where we experimented with different styles and combinations of styles, until we were able too nail down a final 'look' for the horse and jockey. This also involved some work animating the gallop cycle, as the feel of the whiskey also had to work in animation, as well as a still frame.

We had two principal 3D animators, and one compositor to bring the final look and grade together.

We had to look at a lot of reference material, both of real races, which are not shot for dramatic effect, and at cinematic references, where we could understand how to go about creating the drama of the race. An excellent point of reference was the movie 'Seabiscuit' which has some amazing race action scenes.

We used Softimage XSi for all the animation and Flame by Autodesk for the compositing. XSi is a fantastic animation tool, as we can slide and edit animation cycles adding and amending specific actions easily.

To develop the gallop cycles and the jump actions we rotoscoped existing footage of horses racing. To create the drops and splashes around the hooves and tails, we used 3D particle systems. To create the overall 'whiskey' look, we used multilayered render passes, refraction passes and a fair bit of head scratching.

The trickiest elements of a project where we are creating completely new, even groundbreaking imagery, is being able to bring clients along with you during the process, especially if you have a tight deadline. Our final deadline was just 3 weeks once the project had been green lit, so we had to find a structure of working that suited both the client with their need to see and understand approval stages, and or desire to achieve a visually stunning and dramatic piece of work.

The track was chosen by the creative team of Tom O'Haire and Gerry Kennedy at McConnells, and was cut and sfx were done by Locky Butler at Slate under the supervision of agency producer Dave Murphy. Once we had worked out the look of the horse and jockey, we started cutting sequences to a rough-cut of the track, but as we adjusted pace and content of the cut, we had to re-cut the track around this.

I wanted to achieve a build up through the 30 seconds to the end 'photo finish' effect, with a break in the middle for a jump shot - where we would almost lose the music and just have sfx. The final race effects were crucial in communicating the power and the drama of the race and helped give the horses the sense of weight and contact with the ground.

All through the process the agency were very supportive and inspirational to work with, we all knew we had a fantastic opportunity to create a unique piece of work and all the reactions from agency, client and industry so far seems to indicate that we succeeded.

This ad is airing now and up to and including the Easter Weekend.