Case Studies
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (Guru Studio)
A dinosaur gliding down a cheese waterfall, riding cheesy waves and taming macaroni spirals in a wild series of “the cheesiest” adventuroni: that’s the latest spot for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese created by Guru Studio using RealFlow. And boy does that RealFlow cheese look tasty! Brent Forrest and Skye Bjarnason, Fluid Artist and Producer at Guru Studio, talk about the what, why and how of dino’s journey.
Next Limit: Guru Studio used RealFlow on some impressive fluid simulations for this spot. What was RealFlow used on exactly?
Brent Forrest: “A layer of RealFlow particles were emitted upon a warbling conveyor belt to achieve the waterfall and rapids. This layer reacted with the canoe, paddles and surrounding rocks to give us the base mesh without having to simulate a large volume. The main waterfall was a straightforward simulation. After finding a nice balance of settings for a thin rectangular emitter, we duplicated the emitter and shot the particles through each other to get a stringy, stretchy look. We also did some stock splashes to drop in various places.”
NL: Why did you decide on using RealFlow?
BF: “Because RealFlow kicks ass!”.
NL: Could you tell us a bit about Guru Studio?
Skye Bjarnason: “Guru Studio is an award-winning animation design and production company specializing in characters for film and television. The studio was founded in 2000 and has worked with an impressive roster of international advertisers and broadcasters.”
NL: What was the most challenging part of the Kraft Mac & Cheese project and how did you overcome that challenge?
BF: “The river conveyor belt was more challenging than I originally thought. Certain types of deforming mesh did not have the expected results when carted over to RealFlow. It appears that RealFlow particles will not pick up the movement of a mesh deformed in certain ways. We overcame this by driving all deformations with lattices - but the sheer number of particles on the river required starting four individual simulations from different spots on the river, as there was not enough time to run-up the particles needed to cover the entire surface.”
NL: What part of the creative process did you enjoy best?
BF: “Kicking ideas around with Frank and the whole Guru team was the best part. Being able to solidify these abstract concepts with a creative team like that is extremely rewarding.”
NL: What kind of time schedule were you on for the creation of this ad?
BF: “I think it was a two week schedule and it was all overtime hours. The simulations were all completed without stress - but being away from my home and fiancée for two solid weeks was a move I probably won't make again. I was only responsible for certain fluid shots. A lot more was handled by hand sculpted mesh sequences that the Guru team did with the help of their traditional FX man.”
NL: For how long have you been using RealFlow? How easy/ difficult was it to integrate RealFlow in your workflow?
BF: “I have been using RealFlow since the beginning. It is very easy to integrate into any workflow I have encountered.”
NL: How do you think RealFlow could be improved or what would you like to see implemented into the program?
BF: “Because I work strictly with moving pictures, I feel there are great improvements to be made in the manipulation of space and time. Working with objects far away from the grid plane can be irritating, and the gizmos have a habit of becoming too small, too big or unusable. All in all I like the way the software works – if your setup is solid then it tends to run smoothly.”
NL: What other software programs were used and what hardware did you use?
BF: “Everything was done on PCs. We used Maya for the base and collision mesh and Photoshop to illustrate ideas and paint textures.”
NL: How big was the team working on this advertisement?
SB: “There were a total of 12 people working on the project, including a full-time director, animation team, lighting and rendering teams, a producer and a creative director.”
NL: We heard you are already working on the “sequel” to this spot. How is that coming along?
SB: “We have just completed another spot featuring C-Rex for DraftFCB in Chicago, for Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. The spot was beautiful, and our clients are very happy!”
NL: Do you plan to use RealFlow on any other future projects?
SB: “When the opportunity arises for Guru Studio to use RealFlow again, we will do so without reservation.”
Thanks to Brent Forrest and Skye Bjarnason.
Copyright:
Guru Studio - www.gurustudio.com
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