I contributed to showcasing the miraculous inner-engineering of Hyundai's vehicles as the cars cruise around a massive interior test track in a five-spot campaign for Innocean Worldwide. Working at Dashing, our bespoke approach to Visual Effects brought together some of the best talent from around the globe to develop and execute a gargantuan multi-disciplined effort.
Each spot features a Hyundai vehicle cruising through a surreally lit postmodern test facility of giant proportions as intricate graphics showing off the automobiles' machinations spring onto the screen. Veloster displays the car's dual-clutch eco-shift system as it travels through a sheet of liquid light, Sonata shows off the car's hybrid technology as it travels thousands of miles, and Tucson examines the inner workings of the SUV's suspension as it glides over a bumpy road. The vehicles travel towards a light and, as though appearing in another dimension, emerge from a suburban garage door, as narrator Jeff Bridges, summarizes the journey, "Just one of the engineering advances we've brought from our test facility to yours."
It was inspiring to be part of creating something conceptually strong that needed to be real and functional, without seeming too technical, sci-fi or overly designed, as many car spots can be. Director Rob Leggatt (Radke Films/MJZ) brought together an impressive team to design the foundation of this world we were creating. Production Designer John Beard (Brazil, Last Temptation of Christ) and Director of Photography Claudio Miranda (Life of Pi, Tron, Benjamin Button) confidently set the tone early on. I was part of the Dashing team responsible for creating the entire world around these cars. Having a truly filmic foundation meant the CG needed to match that natural, cinematic energy.
Rather than hunkering down in a technology bunker with a massive team to push out the heavy-duty effects, I participated in a more dynamic, agile approach by joining a highly-skilled onsite team of digital craftsmen collaborating with similarly skilled artists working remotely around the world. There's alot of hype about this new paradigm of VFX production, but the reality is there hasn't been a real working example in advertising and certainly not at this scale. I witnessed how small teams of creative experts truly can deliver incredible results if given the right tools. This project distilled the fact that exceptional, creative visual effects depend on the individual artists, the digital craftsmen; not a big established brand. I was fortunate to be part of this dream team, assembled from years of experience working worldwide.