Production focus: The Lab Sydney challenges the elements for Wattyl Solagard via Brand Central

Paint commercials generally follow the same format and when Wattyl and their agency Brand Central, Sydney wanted something ‘different’ to promote the new Solagard range the creative task fell to Graham Nunn of Funnel Productions and the team at The Lab Sydney.

View the Wattyl Solagard Factory spot, which is now airing nationally.

Nunn brought a concept into The Lab which the team there quickly beganto collaborate on. Says Nunn: “Solagard has always been aboutprotecting your home from the sun’s harsh rays. Brand Central hadsuggested pulling all the various technologies that go into the painttogether under the name ‘Total Protection Technology’ which wassubsequently added to the can design. In addition to protecting yourhome from the sun, the technology helped the paint protect in allweather – hot, cold, wet etc. So the new commercial was to be about thetechnology and to not just show the hot Australian sun – as allprevious Solagard commercials had focused on – but to show all weatherextremes.”

Says The Lab’s Creative Director and Co-Director on the project, GarryJacques: “Wattyl had lots of ideas to choose from but they really likedthe one that Graham had initially come up with. So Graham, our Produceron the TVC Linda Lum and I brainstormed the idea. I then produced someboards which were presented to Wattyl and their agency Brand Central.”

The idea that Nunn and the team from the Lab had developed involved awarehouse with robotic machinery that was set up to test a house coatedin new Wattyl Solagard. The tests or ‘torture tests’ as they became tobe known, involved all the elements under the sun – literally.

Nunn said, “I thought from the beginning that there might be a need to”show” the technology – a cross-section of the paint surface at work,resisting the elements or something like that – and that part of thespot might involve 3D animation. Because the budget was tight, it madesense to talk with people who know what is and isn’t achievable in 3Dand I thought of the Lab. I had had a good experience with thempreviously on a fairly tight budget RAMS commercial which involved alot of 3D.  I’ve also thought for some years now that the bestcollaboration when making TV commercials isn’t agency writer and agencyart director trying to come up with the idea, it’s agency creativeworking in collaboration with the film creative (usually the director)from the very start. So I have no problem kicking first thoughts aroundwith production people. To me, it makes even more sense to do thatthese days when so many commercials – and major movies for that matter- have such a high 3D component. The guys on the production and postproduction sides can help you develop concepts that maximise whatyou’ve got without being unrealistic or over-ambitious.”

The Lab’s Head of 3D and Co-Director on the project, Clinton Downssaid, “We did an animatic to set the timings and also help the clientsee the visuals first before deciding on the level of voiceover. Thisreally helped as many of these commercials are often full of words andthe effects are lost.”

A full lighting scenario was created at the beginning of the TVC andeach demo weather element (or torture test) was then equally spacedthroughout the spot.

Downs added, “This project was quite unique as it kept evolvingthroughout. We had the painting of the house and in effect the wholefirst half of the spot keep changing with sections being altered andnew ideas created. We added in a graphic highlighting Wattyl’s TotalProtection Technology to then help join the house to the weathersequence. Full 3D jobs like these often look terrible until right atthe last moment when it all comes together. So, to demonstrate the 3Dprocess to the client we held a pre-production meeting and used ourrecent work on Air Wick as an example.”

The pre-production meeting served to detail not only the 3D process butalso create a level of comfort and confidence in the way the spot wasgoing to be handled.

Graham Nunn added, “Obviously, the Lab contributed to the concept inthe very first instance – it’s as much Garry and Linda’s idea as it ismine. With any concerns the client had along the way, Garry and Clintonwere able to come up with solutions that were both technically possibleand budget-possible. One of the really good things the Lab did early onwas take us all – client included – through a previous 3D animated jobthey’d done for Air Wick. So we could see the various stages in alltheir roughness and weirdness, get a feel for the process andunderstand how it all came together in the finished job.”

The Lab’s producer on Wattyl Solagard Linda Lum added, “We had a greatworking relationship with the client and agency. They trusted us andthat made the process a much more efficient one.”

The team at the Lab created a 2D animatic and a 3D block building theTVC up in sections. According to Downs the spot was not without itschallenges. He said, “It was tough to get all the story points nailed -the lighting, the painting of the house with time lapse, the TotalProtection Technology graphic and the sun, wind and rain torture tests.There was also a pack shot at the end so we needed to time the spotwell, pace it well and not make it too crammed.”

Downs and his team needed to hit the key points so that the spot couldcontinue to be built. The constant evolving of the storyline added tothe challenge. “As the story points kept evolving we had to make ourprocess more fluid. This is also why it generally gets nailed the weekbefore the ad is finalised and is exactly what happened in this case.This TVC was also one continuous animation so we couldn’t trim or editwhich makes it harder again.”

The weather elements were all treated as distinct environments with ahigh level of detail applied to each one – a job The Lab’s Head ofDesign Garry Jacques had a big hand in. He added, “I presentedreferences of the robotic arms, heaters and most of the elements in thefirst animatic which the client approved immediately. This left the 3Dteam to fully design them and create the magic.”

Interestingly the house in the TVC is a real Brisbane home and featureson the side of a tin of Wattyl Solagard. “That said,” commented Downs,”we still had to remove the pool that usually sits outside it!.”

All of the CG weather elements were completely different. The Lab’s 3Dteam used Maya Fluid System for the jet blown wind with the house as acollision object whereas the rain was created with an ‘old schoolparticle’ approach, many layers and a lot of clever augmentation in 2D.

Down’s explained further, “They are cool effects. The rain, wind andsun are totally different. For the sun we have cracked ground, a soakedhouse for the r
ain and a fluid system for the wind. Each effect wastreated as a different shot. We also added a lot of detail like froston the glass, and icicles on the roof. There was a lot of care andattention in this spot.”

Nunn added, “We made sure to constantly address client requirementswithout screwing up the idea. For example, the client (Julie Webster)wanted to highlight somehow the ‘Total Protection Technology’ part ofthe commercial – to somehow show that the technology was providing aprotective shield or barrier for the house. Garry and Clinton suggestedhaving the chemical formula circle the house and this solved theproblem.”

As there was no live action in the spot the team decided to add some byplacing some carefully crafted birds and butterflies in the last frameto accompany the pack shot. According to Wattyl Marketing Manager JulieWebster, the effects were so good that, “when the option comes up inthe future to do CG or practical effects I will choose CG!”

Critical to the final look of the Wattyl Solagard TVC was thecompositing. Senior Compositor on the spot Bertrand Polivka commented,”There was a good exchange of data with the 3D guys who also did a 3Dcomp to save time. We have an excellent pipeline and used Nuke for 95%of the spot, doing the final grade in Flame. As it was treated as oneshot we had very big working files which had to be carefully managed.”

Unusually in this case Polivka’s ‘clients’ on the TVC were in effectthe creative duo of Clinton Downs and Garry Jacques. Polivka commented,”Clinton and Garry are tough creatives and as clients would only settlefor the best. There was a lot of 2D augmentation and enhancements ineach of the 3D torture effects which had to be perfect. We added biggereffects like smoke around the house and water dripping onto it as wellas more subtle ones like heat haze when the house is burning and aniced up lens effect when the house was cold.”

Says Nunn: “This project was a great collaboration from initial conceptdevelopment through to final production. The guys at The Lab werealways willing to work with the client and always kept their eye ongetting a quality finished result and constantly came up with a way tosatisfy everybody. No dummy spits, very professional and very good atwhat they do. There was a real sense that this was a labour of love asmuch as it was a commercial production.”

View the Wattyl Solagard Factory spot, which is now airing nationally.

Client:  Wattyl

Sound Design: Nylon Studios