Natrad, a large chain of franchised workshops and manufacturer of car cooling systems has a mascot based on a car radiator.

Their mascot, called Nat, was developed in 3D for an extremely successful advertising campain. The fan on his back allowed him to hover around and move quickly.

When it comes to animating a spinning wheel, no matter what you do, it just looks still... unless it's painted smartly. The fan was also slightly offset from the centre, adding to the cartoonish look of the character.

Nat had several long lines to say in this TV commercial. The voice was recorded first and then the lip-sync animation was developed. Perfect sync was achieved by placing copies of seven different morph targets along a timeline, matching the waveform of the recorded voice.