HOUSE OF SPARKLING

TitleHOUSE OF SPARKLING
BrandYELLOWGLEN
Product / ServiceBRAND
CategoryA02. Computer Graphics/Visual Effects
EntrantAlt.VFX Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Entrant Company Alt.VFX Brisbane, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency THE MONKEYS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production Company FINCH Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Position
Justin Drape Chief Creative Officer
Micah Walker Executive Creative Director
Benn Sutton Copywriter
Dave Ladd/Matt Heck/Barbara Humphries Art Director
Jade Wannell Agency Producer
Michael Hilliard Producer
Christopher Riggert Director
Nylon Studios Sound Studio
Eclectic Music Machine Music
Alt.vfx Special Effects/Computer Graphics
The Butchery Editing Company
Vfx Supervisor: Colin Renshaw/Vfx Producer: Takeshi Takada Other Credits

Brief Explanation

Yellowglen welcomes Australians to the House of Sparkling - an enchanting place that will allow people to rediscover the brand through imaginative experiences.

Creative Execution

The "House of Sparkling" spot made heavy use of 3ds Max and Particle Flow; an event-based particle system designed specifically for complicated effects work. We used a virtual character, match-moved to the on-screen tap dancer, to emit sparks which crackled, popped and fizzed depending on his foot-steps. A careful balancing of the amount of sparks was needed to build towards the crescendo at the end of the spot when he dances on the ceiling. At that moment he creates a mist-like rain of sparkles which cascade down towards the floor below. The sparks cool as they die, floating upwards as they sizzle away to invoke a cool effervescence and remind us of the sparkling nature of the product. Different 'events' were created to simulate the pops and cracks from the flint hits made from the tap dancing reference. These events would be triggered, randomly, by factors such as speed, collisions and direction. Particles would start white-hot and cool off through the black body radiation scale and rendered in floating point. This dynamic range would allow for correct lensing and flaring based on thresholds referenced from the live action plates. As the schedule was fairly short, it was important to have a system of sparks which could be quickly spread across all the shots; easily being 'dialed up' as the spot progresses. Every motion of the tap dancers feet automatically creates different effects, whether he is walking, tapping or dancing on the celing. Variables would be introduced later and some key framing accentuate his movements and enhance the effects. The room was accurately represented to reflect and capture light from the sparks. Rendering was done via Mental Ray and compositing was Autodesk Flame. Alt finished the 40 odd shots in 2 weeks.