Alt VFX creates a square world in new campaign for the Honda Civic Coupe via RPA, Los Angeles
Partnering with LA agency RPA and LA production company Arts & Sciences, Alt.vfx has created a world that can only be described as square. People, dogs, trees, skate bowls, haircuts and balloons stood in rigid contrast in awe of the new Honda Civic Coupe.
Even the format of the ad itself is square, with the sides of the frame opening like a curtain to further showcase the car in the commercial.
Alt was tasked with extensive digital environment work replacing buildings and landscapes with a squarer aesthetic, along with populating the square city with its inhabitants. Square pigeons and a poodle were created entirely in CG, with designs concepted by Alt. The square people were a combination of practical effects from film legends Legacy VFX, with Alt recreating the faces in CG to bring them to life.
Sean Ryan, Alt.vfx shoot supervisor was in LA to get the digital scans of the fantastic practical latex models made by Legacy FX.
Says Ryan: “The Legacy practical models had so much detail; they were amazing, yet they were still just static latex faces in a neutral pose. We needed to have pixel accurate scans so we could recreate them in CG and then bring them to life.”
Colin Renshaw, VFX supervisor and founder believes the project was a perfect example of remote but seamless execution with the agency and client States side, and Alt in Australia.
Says Renshaw: “We met with the agency remotely on a weekly basis with our online review tools where we went into some amazing creative detail. There were lots of last minute tweaks and yet it was without stress and free flowing. The project was worked on by both the Sydney and Brisbane teams and it all came together in a few weeks.”
Client: Honda Civic Coupe
Agency: RPA
Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer: Joseph Baratelli
Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director: Jason Sperling
Co-Creative Director: Johnny Hardstaff
Senior Vice President, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff
Vice President, Executive Producer: Isadora Chesler
Associate Creative Director (Art): Marcella Coad
Associate Creative Director (Copy): Paul Fung
VP Director of Business Affairs: Maria Del’Homme
EVP Management Account Director: Brett Bender
VP, Group Account Director: Adam Blankenship
EVP Management Account Director: Brett Bender
VP, Group Account Director: Adam Blankenship
Management Supervisor: Rose McRitchie
Account Executive: Chloe Seitz
Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director of Photography: Danny Ruhlmann
Editorial: Union Editorial
5 Comments
Decades ago Wilkinson Sword created a man with a square head to launch their pivoting-head razor. And there was no such thing as digital effects then, only good ideas and production challenges for those producing them. Everything old is new again.
When I was a young CD guy Wilkinson Sword featured a guy with a square head for their new pivoting-head disposable razor.No digital effects in those days, just production challenges for good, original ideas.
Nice effects work.
But no director credited.
That always makes me wonder.
Nice one Colin. Really stands out over here.
A million years ago, dinosaurs walked the earth, some of them had square heads.
And let me tell you something young whipper-snapper! That sure wasn’t due to your new-fangled visual effects. The only way the dinosaurs could make their heads square was good old fashioned elbow grease.
Obviously this made the t-rex very angry. His measly little arms didn’t have the strength to fashion his head into a square shape, as was the fashion of the day.