The Lab Sydney’s Commercial Studio today announced details of their involvement with the TVC for
New product from
He said. “Dael came in to see us with style frames for a ‘child’s multi-layered hairstyle of thought information’ that he lovingly referred to as an ‘Information Afro’ or ‘In-Fro’ for short. It was then up to the commercial studio team to decide the best way to bring the In-Fro to life.”
The team also included Senior Colourist, Marcus Timpson, Senior Compositor, Eric Schaechter, 3D artists, Kanin Phemayothin and Bernard Stock, Creative Director, Garry Jacques and Designers, Daniel Bavell and Jessica Morgan.
With original design considerations from agency Singleton Ogilvy & Mather (SOM) creatives Dominic McCormack and Liam Hillier, (who approached Dael Oates, because of his background in post production and 3D animation) and Oates’ vision for the In-Fro to be taken fully into account, Downs and the team began their intricate and often complex task.
The more traditional ‘textbook’ look that Oates wanted brought challenges as Downs and his team could not rely on the usual array of textures and images often used in ‘usual’ advanced 3D effects.
Creative Director, Garry Jacques, continued, “As we discussed our options it became clear; as the child acquires more and more information throughout the day, that the In-Fro be best to “grow” throughout the duration of the commercial. Therefore becoming more dense as more thoughts are being processed with lots of puzzles being solved in a visual way.”
With this framework in mind
At the same time the In-Fro’s movement was being developed, the Lab’s 2D and 3D teams were also discussing how to shoot the live–action so integration and tracking would be best served.
After performing several early tracking tests,
“The actual construction of the In-Fro was a combination of a few things. We started out with a base ‘hair’ layer which was designed to lock perfectly to each child’s head. This layer contained hundreds of small flat shapes which were textured with numbers and letters and rigged as a dynamic simulation which responded to wind and movement, all built and assembled by Kanin Phemayothin. On top of this layer, we created an incredibly dense layer of rigid objects which helped break up the silhouette edge. Finally we added our ‘hero’ layer which consisted of a fully dynamic cloth simulation. This top layer contained a combination of 3D elements which included random shapes, typography, planets and a space shuttle alongside 2D animated graphic elements created by Daniel Bavell and Jessica Morgan.”
The cleverness of the TVC and In-Fro in particular, was due to the relationship between the information accumulated by the child as he progresses through his day. Garry Jacques continued, “Dael came in with his story boards and wanted to tell how, as the child went from school, to the museum, onto building his go-kart and then soccer practice, all the time the information he received was being processed. We decided that some elements in the child’s day should also come to life and in the process, build up the In-Fro more. This meant characters came off chalkboards, bugs came to life in the museum, pistons pumped off the go-kart plans and the soccer ball trajectory thought process all became visible. It was an incredibly integrated procedure for the design, 2D and 3D teams.”
The Lab teams then carried out test shots to work out each individual scene. Each shot had to incorporate the director’s handheld POV and the emphasis was placed heavily on realism.
Clinton Downs continued, “The head tracking was done in Boujou and the In-Fro, rig and rendering in Maya. In addition, Bernard Stock, one of our 3D artists, shot HDRI plates for each environment during the shoot which were later used for the lighting of the In-Fro in each scene. The soccer scene was particularly difficult due to shooting in cloudy conditions and the ever changing light. At the end of the day, 70% of the lighting came from the HDRI plates and 30% was hand crafted.”
The complexities of the In-Fro then moved to Senior Flame Compositor, Eric Schaechter, who explained, “More than 200 passes were given to me from 3D for the entire commercial. Some shots had multiple passes and multiple In-Fros which meant I had to comp and manipulate the original plates. The compositing was done in stages. First there was retouching of faces and make up. This was followed by keying green screens, dust busting and then stabilising elements for the design team and getting all the backgrounds ready for the 3D team. Finally there was a week of comping the 3D into all the shots. It was a big job but a very rewarding one.”
Both initial and final colour grading which was carried out on C-Reality by Senior Colourist, Marcus Timpson, who commented, “This grade was particularly challenging because it rained a lot during the shoot. It’s testament to the skill of the whole team that the final result looked so good.”
Director, Dael Oates, said, “As with any job,
The Milo B-Smart TVC is currently airing nationally. To view the Milo B-Smart TVC go to: http://www.thelabsydney.com.au/?pg=2367
Production Company – Prodigy Films
Dael Oats – Director
Jonathon Samway – EP
Suzanne Mallos – Producer
Agency – Singleton Ogilvy & Mather
Boris Garelja – Creative Director
Raj Rabindranath – Creative Director
Liam Hillier – Art Director
Dominic McCormack – Writer
Richard Carr – Business Development Director
Alex Edwards – Account Director
Corinne Lagis – Senior Account Manager
Lisa Ristuccia – TV Producer
Post Production – The Lab
Linda Lum – Post Production Producer
Christine Alajajian – Assistant Post Production Producer
Kanin Phemayothin – 3D artist
Bernard Stock – 3D artist
Alex Goodwin – 3D artist
Ian Watson – 3D artist
Garry Jacques – Designer / Creative Director
Daniel Bavell – Designer
Jessica Morgan – Designer
Eric Schaechter – Senior Compositor
Marcus Timpson – Senior Colourist
Soren Jensen – VFX Supervisor
[release from Well Above]