Concept and creative process
For the ident ‘Magical’ FutureDeluxe wanted to create a classic Christmas magical setting but have something unexpected happen after the initial ‘2’ shape resolves.
"We eventually decided to create a snowy forest of pines, making our unexpected element to be the playful and energetic animation of the hero tree. Drawing inspiration from the way dogs shake their fur when wet (especially using high frame rate cameras), we split the animation into two sections; one that was slowed down significantly, showing a beautiful, folding shake of sparkling snow into the air, and the second section which speeds up suddenly to leave us with an amusing shake and shiver before returning to its rest state. The construction of the tree was fairly complex. We needed to arrange the leaves into a ‘2’ shape, but also maintain depth and a realistic tree-like structure. Other challenges were the placement of snow on the leaves (leaving realistic bare patches in the shelter of branches), and the general bend and stretch of the leaves as they animated, giving just the right amount of character without becoming entirely unrealistic. The piece was created using Houdini as the 3D software, with compositing in Nuke."