Digital Domain
To create a commercial for Mya, Motorola hired the McCann Erickson company, who in turn hired Digital Domain to create the character. The design was described as a "big-budget" production, though Digital Domain were only given three months to complete the project. Mya's physical representation: a tall, thin, blonde, blue-eyed white female, was created in the likeness of a human model, Michelle Holgate. The initial inspiration for Mya came from vintage pin-up girls. The first representation of Mya had a very small waist and large breasts, and was said to resemble Jessica Rabbit, which did not impress either Motorola or McCann Erickson. Motorola asked Digital Domain to make Mya look as human as possible yet still be obviously artificial. The first completed iteration of Mya was so realistic that Motorola asked for her to be made more obviously digital. Viewers were reportedly not impressed with Mya because they thought she was a real person. Digital Domain visual effects supervisor and animation director, Fred Raimondi, decided to remodel Mya's appearance to be "just to the left of real". Mya's hair was changed from brunette to bleach blonde. Her short spiky hair style was said to resemble that of Serena Altschul. According to Digital Domain, giving Mya hair that was longer than ear-length was not possible in the time they had been given, due to the difficulties of creating digital photorealistic hair. Mya's final body shape was an almost exact copy of the original model's measurements. Mya was typically seen wearing a silver pantsuit but also appeared in halter tops in some shots and dressed in an evening gown for her debut. While Digital Domain staff wanted Mya to appear in a knee-length skirt with high boots, Motorola and McCann chose the pantsuit, due to its contemporary look.