Case Studies
Rushes (Heineken)
Rushes Postproduction Limited is a leading post production
facility with over 30 years of experience in the business.
With practice in the field of feature films, commercials and
broadcast television and clients such as Sony, Nokia, Arctic
Monkeys and Heineken, Rushes has become synonymous with creative
excellence and expertise.
This particular spot for Heineken was focused around the
launch of their new bottle design. Rushes decided to go for
a slick adaptation of a metamorphosis scene from the cult
movie Terminator 2. In the commercial, the old model bottle
shatters, liquefies and then reassembles to morph into a flowing,
streamlined shape: the new model.
Rushes undertook both the live action shoot, utilizing its
own motion control studio in Wardour Street in London’s
Soho, and the post-production in order to have maximum input
and involvement in the project. Jonathan Privett, CG Supervisor
at Rushes explains: “Initially, an animation of the
20-second spot was created to test the timings and camera
work for both the live action and the 3D aspects. Once the
pre-visualization was complete, the shoot took place giving
the open for the film in which the old bottle is frozen by
combining beauty, smoke and frosted passes in Inferno.
Then, Maya Dynamics was used to make the frozen bottle shatter
dramatically in slow motion. All pieces were modeled by hand
and moved to avoid rigid body penetration. In total, 500 separate
shards were simulated. Renderman was used to shade the solid
glass chunks. Next, Rushes used Next Limit Technologies’
RealFlow software for the melting and recombination of the
glass. RealFlow enabled the simulation team to place blobs
of liquid with a high surface tension and use forces to attract
them together to the point where the bottle forms.
As RealFlow is really designed for faster moving liquid
applications, it took the team around ten hours per iteration
to complete the three liquid recombination shots. But it was
worth it: RealFlow gave a superb looking end result. Finally
multiple passes, including beauty, highlight, shadow, refraction
and caustics were combined in Inferno for the finished film.
To see the clip, please click
here (6,50 Mb)
For more information about the Rushes studio, please visit
www.rushes.co.uk
Copyright:
VFX Shoot Supervisor: Matt Jackson
Producer Live Action: Misha Stanford-Harris
Camera Operator: John Wenman
Film Editor: Pete Lurie
Telecine: Adrian Seery
Lead VFX Artist: Paul Hannaford
VFX Artist: Omar Akkari
VFX Producer: Misha Stanford-Harris
CG Supervisor: Jonathan Privett
Lead CG Animator: Craig Travis
CG Animators: Nathan Walster, Graham Cristie, Hayden Jones
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