As the Coke Arctic Home project was preparing to launch in Fall 2011, the ArcticHome.com site needed a place holder for early visitors. The print advertisements featured an image of a polar bear on a white background, built entirely from fingerprints. We then recreated this image as an animation with text overlays (telling viewers to return to the site after the launch date).
The animation was a hybrid of traditional time-line animation and coded animation. Certain fingerprints required specific placements, especially around the bear's face ("hero fingerprints"), and they were all animated by hand. Except for the several hundred other necessary fingerprints, an animation system was built where the prints dynamically would come up in layers. A final animated darkening of certain elements created the illusion of the polar bear's face appearing.
