Sportsbet ‘World Cup Octopus’.
Back in 2010, there was a small marine invertebrate named Paul that received the attention of the world as an uncanny, accurate predictor of that year’s World Cup results, correctly predicting the winners of 12 out of 14 games.
Jump ahead by 12 years and Sportsbet have paid tribute to Paul by reprising his legacy via a fully cgi octopus created by the team at Cadre Pictures.
Director: Julian Lucas
Production: Palomina
Client: Sportsbet
Post: Manimal
Director Julian Lucas from Melbourne production company Palomina shot the plates of a water filled glass tank with gravel, rocks and plants and we added the clear perspex boxes, the soccer ball, the phone and the octopus.
Our octopus itself was sculpted from scratch and taking some creative liberty, we made him ‘talk’, or more accurately, generate bubbles on cue.
On the face of it, creating a CG octopus is a fairly straightforward exercise, or so you’d think. Rigging and animating a creature without solid bones or joints, and with multiple limbs, adds a significant level of complexity to the overall tasks.
Our on-set supervisor took a series of spherical bracketed exposures which were then collapsed into a HDRI to set up the base lighting for the scene. From there, lights and animated caustic effects were added to bed him into the live action plate.
Outdoor 3D Billboard
With the cgi octopus asset well in hand, we were also asked to produce a 30 second spot to be played in a prominent Melbourne CBD location using the 3D rendering technique for a flat giant screen.
At first, we were presented with two sites – one that was on a side of a building and the other being the corner of a building. The corner execution was dropped and so we put all our energies into the single site execution.
In order to produce the 3D experience for the viewer, a viewing ‘sweet-spot’ as seen from the street is nominated and from that position, measurements and angles are taken so that we can replicate the viewing angle in our 3D software. We then create what appears to be a three dimensional animation taking place inside the building.
To make this illusion work, the render supplied to the media outlet is distorted when viewed perpendicular to the screen. But from across the road, it’s magic.
And even though the octopus asset was the same as per the TVC, the animation and lighting was customised to suit the attributes of the OOH site.
Software used -
3ds Max, Redshift, Fusion, After Effects, Mari, Substance, Photoshop.