Hennessy's odyssey into sea & space
Brief
Create a stunning and artistic representation of father-son duo Auguste and Jacques Piccard and their achievements into sea and space.
Approach
Our VFX artists carried out extensive research into the look and feel of the time in order to meticulously craft a series of visuals that detailed the duo’s journey to the ends of the earth, utilizing a range of digital techniques and artistry.
Impact
A spot that was awarded multiple Visual Effects accolades including a Gold Cannes Lion.
Client
Droga5
Brand
Hennessy
Production Company
Somesuch
Director
Daniel Wolfe
Capabilities
VFX / Animation / Matte Painting / Design
Hennessy’s ‘The Piccards’ is a tale of exploration that documents the Swiss inventor’s feat in becoming the first man to reach the stratosphere, before his son continued this pioneering spirit 30 years later in reaching the deepest point in the ocean.
To provide reference for the landscape and cloud shots, the team was able to gather references from Auguste Piccard’s first flight in Augsburg, Germany which proved extremely informative when it came to matte painting.
By using four different cameras and scale models of the submarine and pod during the shoot, the CG team was able to reinterpret and augment the on-set miniatures using Maya and Mari.
One of the biggest CG elements in the spot was the balloon. The team used Marvelous Designer to simulate the cloths folds and Mari to texture 32K pixels of high res fabric.
Looking to enhance and entwine these visuals while retaining a sense of realism, the team ended up creating a host of CG elements and intricate digital matte paintings which were then all seamlessly combined to create an impactful and dynamic final spot.
“There was a great amount of research that went into creating this spot. Our aim was to get as close as possible to the look and feel of the original story from the beginning of the project. We researched images, blueprints, documentaries, stock footage, various kinds of clouds and what heights they are formed at.”
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