"TRUCKIN' BUBBLES"
PrePost has had the privilege to work in the Bud Light Seltzer world since the Martin Agency pitched the account last summer. We have been developing the product library assets and key design elements like the seltzer bubbles and liquid cans across the entire product line. Those early projects have proven to be key for the Truckin' Bubbles campaign. The design language and guidelines developed with the Martin Design Team – complete with robust thinking on everything from bubble colors to pattern usage, liquid can behaviors to bubble transparency – all of these elements in turn formed the blueprint for translating the seltzer bubbles of our designs into all of these fantastic live-action scenes.
BREAKDOWNS
**some of these are before the color grade by CO3 and final finishing
MOTION R&D
Figuring out the right amount of "wobble" and balance between the large bubbles and nucleation sites took the most development. We found a good look that retained the "seltzer" fizz feeling while also being able to fill the world with large bubbles that we could motivate to move through the world.
ON SET DATA CAPTURE
On set, we captured HDRIs for each of our scenes along with LIDAR scans of the set and any objects that interacted with the bubbles. These captures were imperative to building out our scenes entirely in 3D. It gave our animation and simulation teams a world in which our bubbles could interact with within the scene's environment. We could cast shadows and reflect light and color onto the objects that they encountered. Those details give moments like the truck doors opening, the wide pool shot, and the hero product shot an extra bit of polish and realism.
In addition to this we also gathered loads of data for each shot of camera settings, lens attributes, and reference photos for lighting each shot. All this data may seem small, but it aids each one of our departments for scene recreation in 3D.
ANIMATION
Our bubbles were a combination of simulations and hand animated bubbles depending on the shot needs. We approached each shot individually. The larger simulated shots were created using vellum in Houdini. The rest were simulated using soft bodies in Cinema4d along with X-particles. Some bubbles are just simple spheres with an animated displacement map. We chose which method to go with based on how much art direction we needed.
LOOK DEVELOPMENT
We took macro photos of real seltzer bubbles to research how they refracted and reflected in the real world. We came up with two ways to go about the bubbles. Either they were filled with liquid - in which the image would be flipped, or they were a pocket of air - in which the image behind the bubbles would not be flipped. We ended up going with the air bubble look because it was more true to actual seltzer bubbles. In order to achieve this we had to give each bubble a thickness after their simulation in order to get the correct refraction. We also added a slight bit of noise in the normals to also give a bit of warping to the refraction. The colors were representative of actual seltzer flavors in the Bud Light Seltzer product line.
HARDWARE
For this project we used Redshift to render, but we have always strictly used GPU rendering and have built our systems around that. We have one desktop with (1) 3090, one desktop with (2) 3090's, and one desktop with (4) 4090's that did most of the heavy lifting. Render times varied from 15 seconds a frame to 4 minutes depending on complexity.
CREDITS
Agency The Martin Agency
Production Company Tomorrow TV
Director Andrew Donoho
Director of Photography Idan Menin
Line Producer Ian Blair
EP/HOP Brynne Copping
Managing Director Chris Zander
VFX Supervision and Finishing PrePost3D
VFX Supervisor and 3D Artist Ben Webber
VFX Creative Director and 3D Artist Britta McPherson
Executive Producer Patrick Mack
On Set VFX Supervisor Andrew Deneau - Capture Set
Data Wrangler Cael Liakos-Gilbert
Houdini Artist Jacktone Okore
3D Artist Grayson Blackmon
Nuke Artist Philip Ballard
Nuke Artist Pency Kinnard
Flame Artist Alan Simonelli
Tracking and Layout Chrome VFX
Houdini Technical Direction and Scene-Setup RocketLab
Technical Director (RocketLab) Ben Watts
Executive Producer (RocketLab) Justin Puda
Executive Producer Patrick Mack
On Set VFX Supervisor Andrew Deneau - Capture Set
Data Wrangler Cael Liakos-Gilbert
Houdini Artist Jacktone Okore
3D Artist Grayson Blackmon
Nuke Artist Philip Ballard
Nuke Artist Pency Kinnard
Flame Artist Alan Simonelli
Tracking and Layout Chrome VFX
Houdini Technical Direction and Scene-Setup RocketLab
Technical Director (RocketLab) Ben Watts
Executive Producer (RocketLab) Justin Puda
Edit Final Cut
Editor Rick Russell
Asst Edit Hannah Wederquist-Keller
Executive Producer Sarah Roebuck
Editor Rick Russell
Asst Edit Hannah Wederquist-Keller
Executive Producer Sarah Roebuck
Color Company3
Senior Colorist Matt Osborne
Senior Producer Dan Butler
Mixer Suat Onur Ayas MPSE
Squeak E. Clean Studios
