PROJECT DIARY
COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMNOVEMBER 2019
traditionally a motion studio and not a VFX
studio, taking on a two-minute fully CGI film
that was conceived as live action would be
a big challenge. However, we do understand
traditional film making, and adapted our
approach to bring our motion design skills
together with a cinematic style. There were
no agency boards, so we drew a storyboard
to sequence the overall journey and once that
was approved we did a full 3D pre-viz, which
we refined with the client and the agency until
everyone was happy with the edit.
DESIGN AND PRODUCTION
By Ryan Locke
The overarching concept of the campaign is that
of unlocking secrets. With that in mind, Cubo
wanted a clean, white colour palette throughout,
with objects such as whiskey barrels and stills
whitewashed with just a hint of their original
colour showing through. The look was clean,
fresh and stark, getting away from the aged dark
wood, amber tones and dusty cellars commonly
associated with Scotch.
PROCESSOne of the hardest concepts to conceive was
the optical sculpture. It took a lot of figuring out
because it would only look correct from one sweet
spot, at which point the hanging elements together
form a huge whiskey bottle. We had to agree on that
viewing angle very early on. Later, the challenge was
to render all the glass vessels.DEVELOPING A
STRIKING IMAGE
Senior motion designer Ryan Locke describes
how the team designed a hanging sculpture
made up of dozens of smaller vesselsDesigning the architecture and environments
was the most extensive and challenging aspect
of the job. We wanted the journey to flow
seamlessly from room to room, so we needed
to think about the design of the entire House
of Ballantine’s. Corridors needed to lead to the
right places, and windows and skylights in one
room would affect the layout of the next.
Ballantine’s is a blended whisky and the
agency wanted to convey this through the
architecture. So we fused together modern
aspects with more traditional motifs. Where
possible, we made beams and structural
elements spiral and twist together to reinforce
this sense of blending.
Three of the key objects in the film – the
waterwheel, the house and the pagoda
chimneys – are based on real-world objects
at Ballantine’s distilleries and as such needed
to look accurate. Using reference photos, we
recreated life-like 3D models of each to use
in the film and in still images used for the
campaign. Ballantine’s wanted to reference
natural elements such as flowers, berries and020403“There were no
agency boards,
so we drew a
storyboard to
sequence the
overall journey”