Summary
A convertible for the sun and snow
The Mill LA had the pleasure of collaborating with Noam Murro
from Biscuit and the team at Deutsch to create this cinematic,
suspenseful and humorous spot for VW.
The Mill's compositing and matte painting team were tasked with
turning two sunny shoot days into a winter wonderland of snow
covered roads and landscapes.
"For most commercials that require some addition of snow in the
background we take a minimal approach and just patch in some small
areas," explained 3D Lead Artist Gawain Liddiard, "however on the
VW mask we went all out with a full-on winter wonderland of snowy
vistas. This posed a particular challenge in the driving shots as
there was so much camera movement while we covered a wide range of
landscape. Furthermore, there were practically no snow
effects in these plates as it was impossible for the crew to lay
down artificial snow on such a long stretch of highway. Because of
this, we decided to completely deconstruct the plate and rebuild
our own snow drenched world using as many as 40 layers of projected
matte paintings to build up a rich and believable image."
Such extravagant re-working of the background required the team to
also treat the car and the road to match the newly designed snow.
"Using 3D renders, we created matte painted snowy landscapes to
accurately match the side panel of the VW Beetle and layered
rendered patches of water across the road to create a subtle
wet-down effect to tie everything together," explains Gawain.
"Through this extensive work a vast amount of the final image is
VFX work, yet it still respects the feel of the original plate, and
more importantly the product."
With a cold and natural look set by The Mill LA's talented
telecine artist, Adam Scott, VW demonstrates the irrelevance of
seasons when you're riding in the beautiful new Beetle
Convertible.
Check out the Mill on: