Brief Explanation

Set in an eerie, deserted city, this epic spot announces the new Samsung Smart TV: a television that can be controlled using voice and hand gestures. A lone man wanders the streets before being confronted by a host of characters from the world of television and movies. From rampaging dinosaurs, to stampeding wildebeest and an alien invasion our hero controls each one using his voice and hands.

Creative Execution

A raft of blockbuster, visual effects feature in this epic spot for the Samsung Smart TV. Set in an eerie, deserted city, the film follows a lone hero as he is confronted by a host of TV and movie characters. Featuring everything from a herd of stampeding wildebeest, to a rampaging T-Rex and a full-scale alien invasion, the team created much of the content from scratch, then seamlessly integrated the elements into their live action surroundings. The creative ambition of the spot relied heavily on the credibility of the VFX, which is both minutely detailed and epic in scope. ‘King of TV’ is a major VFX piece, combining all the major disciplines into one seamless, epic sequence. Specialist work included concept design for the t-rex and spacecraft, CG, 3D, matte painting, green screen, rig removal, colour grading and everything in between. Filmic city setting The director wanted to change the streets of Cape Town into a claustrophobic modern city, with no escape. Trees were removed and buildings were enhanced to give the look of a looming generic, modern city. The ends of the streets themselves were replaced with matte paintings to dramatically enhance the claustrophobic feel. Wildebeest Footage of wildebeest was captured on a huge green screen, working in a safari park just out of Cape Town. This was challenging to say the least, as wildebeest aren’t exactly the most co-operative animals! Multiple plates of wildebeest were then comped into place using proprietary crowd replication software, while two wide-shots were created using CGI. Puppetry The bear was captured in-camera using a traditional puppet. Rigs and puppeteers were later removed. Our bear has the soul of ‘in-camera’ animation, combined with aspects of anthropomorphism using Warp and eye animation. T-Rex and character animation The suitably terrifying CGI tyrannosaurus-rex was designed, textured, animated and comped with huge attention to detail. The range of shots from close-ups, to interaction with in-camera elements provided the team with a fantastic set of challenges. Following initial concepts by in-house artists, the dinosaur was sculpted in 3D using ZBrush. This was vital as it depicted its final shape and form, allowing the team to measure the impact point precisely on the wall (the wall that is destroyed by the creature is part miniature build and part CG). The compositing team added debris and saliva to the dinosaur, further adding to the photo-realism. Mothership and UFO crafts The final epic scene showing a space-age assault was a combination of live action and CG magic. Referencing films such as ‘Independence Day’ and ‘Alien’, the concept artists turned their hand to designing the Mothership and attacking UFO crafts. The shot containing the Mothership was created from scratch using a still from a time-lapse camera, matte painting and adding a 3D Model in Flame. Light interaction and shadows were added in 2D. The impressive alien attacks were created using vfx by enhancing the plates and comping in the CGI UFO’s. Explosions The impressive explosions were added using a combination of CGI fire, combined with real elements shot against black. An extensive element library was utilised to add to the flame and smoke effects. Overall the project was an amazing collaborative effort over two months with multiple vfx disciplines working together to achieve an epic and minutely detailed result.