Brief

French video game developer Quantic Dream commissioned The Mill/MPC to create a fully CG short film to showcase Balenciaga’s Fall 2021 collection. Balenciaga referenced the “twenty-tens” gaming era ('The Last of Us', 'Tomb Raider', and particularly the Quantic Dream 2013 hit title 'Beyond Two Souls'). They wanted to recreate a film that evoked the same feelings and tonality of classic interactive gaming.

Approach

After the success of The Mill/MPC's work on Balenciaga’s Spring 22 Clones Collection and Winter 20, the teams were tasked to create a videogame, love story aesthetic in a VR-obsessed future dystopia. The Mill/MPC used full VFX and CG to bring this epic feature to life. The team used the latest on motion capture techniques to create animated versions of real-life people.

Impact

The film and marketing stills debuted on the Balenciaga website and social media channels in June 2021 as part of an integrated campaign. In the first week of launch, the film racked up over 60k views on YouTube and garnered widespread acclaim across the fashion press with features in Vogue, HYPEBEAST and Hapers Bazaar.

+60k
Views on YouTube
4th
Collaboration with The Mill/MPC
Featured
In Vogue, Hypebeast and i-D
Client

Balenciaga

Agency

Quantic Dream

“Utilizing the strength of real-time rendering we were able to quickly compose the stills and render out high resolution assets ready to be rolled out on all of the Balenciaga social platforms. These visuals helped drive the exposure of both the upcoming Fall 21 collection but also give a glimpse into the virtual realm that is ‘Afterworld’.”
Motion Design Creative Director at The Mill/MPC, Ryan Hays

This campaign marks The Mill/MPC’s fourth collaboration with the brand, following Balenciaga’s Summer 21 Pre-collection video directed by Walter Stern, the Winter 20 collection video which saw MPC create colossal cinematic visuals for the brand’s Paris Fashion Week show, and the recent Digital Clones Spring 22 runway film (below) directed by Quentin Deronzier.

Credits

VFX TEAM
The Mill/MPC:
Executive Producer: James Niklasson
VFX Producer: Jaz Rongokea
2D Creative Director: Marcus Dryden
Motion Design Creative Director: Ryan Hays
3D Supervisors: Dominic Alderson, Andy Steele & David Bryan
2D Supervisor: Jake Nelson
VFX Coordinators: Henrietta Frost and Jamie Hughes
Modeller: Silvia Bartoli
Riggers: Amar Chundavadra, Maximilian Mallmann
FX Artists: Arnau Gilabert, Justin Braun, Alessandro Granella
Colourist: Matthieu Toullet
Compositors: Emma Tyler, Pavel Vicik and Mithun Jacob Alex
Motion Designer: Kerim Camdzic
Stills Producers: Saskia Delius and Jaz Rongokea
Stills Retoucher: Daniel Brady
:
Animation Team:
Artists: Clementine Supiot, Chris Welsby, Andy Reid, Mack Knights
:
Generalist Team:
Artists: Kristian Bonne Jensen, Nick Slade, Matias Heker, Fernando Tortosa, Jessie Amadio, William Laban, Kiril Mirkov
:
MPC Bangalore Team:
Line Producer: Neela Kumuda Parankusham
Production Coordinator: Taruna Sehgal
3D Supervisor: Kunal Sarkar
Head of 2D: Siju Murugan
Supervisor: Silambarasan R P
Comp Lead: Pratyush Paruchuri
Asset lead: Bibin Balan
:
Asset Team:
Artists: Jaspreet Kaur Dua, Palash Ramnaresh Soni, S Shashi Kumar, Sandeep B K, Sandeep Grover, Selva Kumar K, Shreyas Joshi, Ullas Thunga k, Vivek Mayanglambam
:
Generalist Team:
Artists: Abhinandan Madhu, Gangadhar Durga Molleti, Sairam Vaddamanu
Animators: Srinivas Rao Rella, Shiny Rajan
Rigger: Kuntal Kanti Bera