Mugler and The Mill make a VFX star dress for Hunter Schaefer
More than 30 years after its original release, the iconic Angel perfume by Mugler is back with Angel Elixir. This new fragrance is presented as a boundless one between heaven and earth, lighting women from within. This time, the iconic blue star-shaped bottle is embodied by Hunter Schaefer, known for her role in the highly-acclaimed series, “Euphoria”. She embodies a new kind of femininity, more powerful, dazzling and boundless.
For this cosmic ad, Casey Cadwallader, Creative Director of Mugler, co-created the campaign with Publicis Luxe, director Quentin Deronzier with whom we had already worked on the “You Right” video by Doja Cat and The Weeknd. The first part of the ad was entirely made by the production company La Pac with whom we regularly collaborate. Our Parisian studio took care of the final shots – especially the crystal dress. The challenge was to create a dress up to Mugler’s standards, so Creative Director Casey Cadwallader, came in our Parisian studio to craft the FX dress with our artists. We are lucky to be able to welcome such talented artists in our studio.
Benjamin Lenfant, FX artist, and Benjamin Cathala VFX Producer tell you more about the creation of the dress and the organisation of the teams below.
“For this film, I had to create the crystal dress. I made everything on Houdini in FX, well more in detail, I created a procedural set-up to have a cloud of dots on the dress so I could quickly control/edit all the crystals together rather than individually. A few months ago I had worked on a project with a monster covered in crystals so I already had an idea of how to proceed for this Mugler dress.
After sending us references, the creative director at Mugler, Casey Cadwallader, came to our studio in Paris to work with me on the dress. He had a very clear idea of the placement and aesthetic he wanted so our discussions were very fluid. We had to understand that the dress evolves on the actress' body according to the impact of the light. It was very interesting for me because I really felt like I was doing high fashion VFX.
We also had the chance to work with director Quentin Deronzier with whom I had already collaborated on the video "You Right" by Doja Cat and The Weeknd. Quentin has a background in 3D so he has a global understanding of the post production world. He trusted us from beginning to end and it's always nice to work in these conditions.
The bonus was the team at The Mill Paris because I was lucky to meet up with former colleagues and sometimes even friends. We did most of the work in remote, without any worries because we all knew each other strengths and weaknesses for a long time. From my pint of view it's a very elegant project with a lot of attention to detail and an incredible team in every way, I think it's hard to ask for as an artist!”
“The production company La Pac, with whom we are used to working, contacted us last October for our 3D expertise.
The film is split in two parts with traditional 3D made by La Pac at the beginning and a very dreamy conclusion with a stardust dress, requiring the support of our studio's 3D and FX expertise. Cayse Cadwallader - Mugler's creative director with whom we had already worked on Megan Thee Stallion's "Plan B" music video - gave us sketches of the dress. This dress is a reinterpretation of a Thierry Mugler glass dress, so Casey Cadwallader gave us a lot of references. We discussed a lot together with Quentin Deronzier to choose the right VFX look for the dress. It was my first time working with Quentin Deronzier and it was a great experience. His vision was very precise and added to Mugler's art direction and the VFX expertise of The Mill artists, the result is great. It was a very interesting and challenging project, and as usual we were able to find solutions as a team. ”
