Tool Director Geordie Stephens recently teamed up with Victors & Spoils to helm a pair of freewheeling spots for Harley-Davidson.
Liberation highlights the feel-good efforts of a swaggering Harley humanitarian, who struts past a group of caged dogs outside a pet store with an armload of leashes. The leather-bound savior then performs a mass rescue, revving his bike to bring the cage doors exploding off their hinges. He rides proudly off, his canine entourage running at his side. "Now, with even more power," a narrator boasts of the new Harley models. Indeed.

Tool Director Geordie Stephens recently teamed up with Victors & Spoils to helm a pair of freewheeling spots for Harley-Davidson.


Unchained opens on a dog chain steadily tugging at a stake. An imprisoned canine attached to the tether tears the stake from the ground and breaks free lurching across the yard, leaping a fence, and tearing off after the Harley-riding hero whose revving engine had inspired the escape. The camera pans wide then, revealing a wide shot of a neighborhood overrun with dogs chasing behind the bike as a cacophony of joyous barks breaks out.

"G Line" seamlessly blends Japanese-inspired watercolor visual effects with live-action to communicate how the Infiniti G series "unites engineering and emotion, connecting driver to road."

The spot relied heavily on 3D and fluid simulation software. To achieve a totally organic look, Barton and his team shot practical elements at the Digital Domain stage, including wetting down paper on which ink was dropped and brushed, and shooting big ink drops that were dropped onto a sheet of glass lit from underneath. These elements were used both in 2D and 3D and were tracked onto items in the scene. Digital Domain also added CG poppies that kick up and fly around. The primary software package included Autodesk Maya, V-Ray, Houdini, some After Effects, Nuke and 2010 Autodesk Flame.

“Master Driver” seamlessly blends Japanese-inspired watercolor visual effects with live-action to communicate how the Infiniti G series "unites engineering and emotion, connecting driver to road."