Capturing the essence of the holiday season, SWAY studio adds life, spirit and a sense of romanticism to the newest Chandon Sparkling Wine commercial entitled ‘After Party.’
SWAY talented team of artists combined detailed character animation with high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) and their renowned photogrammetry techniques to add precision and energy to this fanciful spot which is currently airing on select US cable and network broadcast stations.
The :30 spot captures a private moment between two magical characters, evolving from a Chandon bottle wire cage and foil, as they share a secret tango among romantic computer generated table top candles, chilled bottles of Chandon, and the sparkle of city lights.
‘The challenge in this project was to evoke passion and emotion from characters made simply from foil and wire,’ said Mark Glaser, owner and creative director of SWAY. ‘I was really pleased with the way the characters turned out, especially the woman. She has a lot of personality and attitude. I really wish this was a :60 spot as I would have loved to have had the opportunity to develop these characters even more.’
SWAY started with a professional live action tango duo, directing them to create the performance that would be used for the wire characters. Because the dancers were so intertwined at times, SWAY opted to use motion capture techniques, instead of multi-camera video reference. To provide the correct quality of movement, SWAY used the motion capture data applied to the wire characters as a reference to animate the hero wire characters in 3D space. Once the wire characters were moving in 3D via motion capture, Glaser was able to shoot a variety of action coverage as if he had a virtual camera crew and dancers on stage.
‘It was important to me that the characters were shot using techniques that would be used if I were shooting real dancers,’ Glaser noted. ‘I didn’st want live action plate shots of a life size camera trying to capture angles looking into the dancers’s miniature world. To help immerse the audience in that world, I wanted the camera to dance with the characters and move at their scale as if we had a 6-inch tall film crew.’
To allow complete freedom in shooting the dance sequence, SWAY additionally recreated the entire interior location, including the champagne bottles, table candles and twinkling city lights, utilizing their renowned photo real CG, HDRI, compositing and photogrammetry techniques. The end result is a spot that is almost entirely computer generated as only seven of the 24 shots contain live action.
SWAY used a variety of off-the-shelf hardware and software to complete the Chandon spot. The most prominently used tools were NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics boards, Nuke for compositing, Scratch for color grading, V-Ray for lighting and rendering and After Effects for logo treatment. 3ds Max 9 was used as the primary animation tool while Lumonix Puppetshop was also used for final character rigging and animation.
About SWAY
SWAY is one of the top animation, effects and design studios in North America whose aim is to advance the artistry of visual content, enabling exciting new creative ideas in any media. SWAY world class artists use cutting edge and innovative technology to produce unforgettable imagery.
SWAY proprietary software, the SWAY Drive-A-Tron?Ñ¢ driving simulator has been used to create stunning visual effects and spots for Chevy, Mazda, Pontiac, Subaru, Hyundai, Hummer and Toyota. This software replicates the performance of any vehicle with complete precision.
Click here to view Chandon Sparkling Wine ‘After Party.’
Production Credits
Agency- Denstu America
Chief Creative Officer – Mike Wilson
Senior VP- Diane Dreyer
Management Supervisor ?Äì Kathleen DeFreitas
Associate Creative Director – Elke Erschfeld
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter- David Muldoon
Producer- Tim Ward
Editorial- Mad House NYC
Editor- Ben Whitten
Producer- Deb Degnan
Production- SWAY studio
Director- Mark Glaser
Executive Producer ?Äì Leighton Greer
Production Manager- Katie Molenaar
Director of Photography- Stefan Von Borbely
Producer- Larry Ewing
Visual Effects ?Äì SWAY studio
Creative Director- Mark Glaser
Executive Producer ?Äì Leighton Greer
Producer- Larry Ewing
Coordinator- Christine Felman/ Lauren Haggard
3D Supervisor- Chris Nichols
VFX /2D Supervisor- Marc Rienzo
Flame- Ben Looram
Technical Director ?Äì Graham Fyffe
Texture/Rigging/Lighter ?Äì Rob Meyers
Lighter ?Äì Daniel Buck
Cloth Animator/Rigging ?Äì Mike Walls
Animator/Rigging ?Äì Attila Zalanyi
Animator ?Äì Gordon Fales
Animator ?Äì Jim Richardson
Lead Animator ?Äì Robert Glazer
Compositor ?Äì Chris Bankoff
Compositor- Maciek Sokalski
Compositor ?Äì Lauren Mayer-Beug
Compositor – Linda Tremblay
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