Do you find yourself asking, "How did they do that," when you watch some of the animals perform in t.v. commercials? Well, Central Utah Correspondent Robert Walz tells us the magic behind one popular ad starts right here in Utah.

Yes, it is impossible to train a zebra to do the things you see it do in the commercial. In fact the zebra used in one commercial came from Utah.

Technicians with Provo based Zygote computers used stuffed and mounted zebra at BYU's Bean Museum to create a computer model. They transfer every inch of the zebra onto the computer screen to get a precise drawing of the animal.

Once inside the computer, they digitized each section of the animal, creating a three dimensional computer model. Eric Merritt of Zygote Computers says, "It makes a nice template for us to build the whole animal."

The muscle tone and other features of the zebra are then drawn in, creating a sculpted image. "It's as if it's a clay sculpture of a zebra in a computer," adds Roger Clark.

Photographs of a real zebra are then wrapped around the computer model to make it look real. The Provo company then sent the images to Digital Domain in Los Angeles, the same company that did the animation work on the film Titanic. When they saw the finished commercial, not even the model makers could tell which zebras were real and which were fake.

Zygote's Tom Wheeler explains, "We had to go frame by frame and stop it and go, 'Okay, I think it's a c.g. and I think that's real action.' It's tough to tell."

Saying, "How did they do that?" is the greatest compliment these computer model makers say they can have.