3-HEADED HYDRA
FCBCURE commissioned us to bring to life a disease state awareness campaign that showcases the complexities of advanced NSCLC with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations. We were tasked with creating a :20 animation and key visuals of a menacing 3-headed hydra to illustrate the cancer and its distinct mutations.
PRE-PRODUCTION ︱ concept
In this version of the serpentine monster of Greek and Roman mythology, two heads snap and seethe, but are held back by chains. The third head is free, roaring and staring directly at the viewer to represent the uncontrolled exon 20 insertion mutation.
At the onset of the story, it appears the danger may be contained, but as the drama unfolds the threats of the disease continue to reveal themselves. When we introduce the first hydra head, its peaceful, bioluminescent blue eye color is soon replaced with flames and a lava-red glow.
After the first head is introduced, a second head enters the screen. It looks similar to the first head, but the unique danger is indicated by this head's yellow coloration. When the final green head appears free from any restraints, the viewer is given a full sense of the unaddressed mutation and the enormity of the challenge.
PRE-PRODUCTION ︱ MODELLING
For the hydra, we aimed for photorealism. Highly detailed textures, like imperfections in the skin, were sculpted. This process is heavily informed by the resolution of the video and print.
PRE-PRODUCTION | PREVIZ
This step gives us the information to understand the main flow of the video. It involves blocking out the timing and story of any character. We do this using the basic rig using low detailed geometry. This gives us information, on animating the basic postures with no real finesses. The timing needed for the portrait section and how to keep the hydra moving are discovered in this phase.
Then, we dive into the details of the animation, like how to make the hydra glide realistically, open mouth or slither. We spend more time on this process.
PRODUCTION | rigging | cgi / vfx
In order to make our model move, we had to create a skeleton that manipulates the skin of the character. This phase required a lot of bones to be placed, and then controllers to link the rotation and position of that bone, whilst allowing those changes to influence the rest of the skeleton in a realistic manner.
Two different rigs were created with the model: one very quick rig to start our previs stage; the other much more detailed rig that controls every possible movement to create realistic movement to the mouth, neck and scales.
production | addtional asset development
Lighting, rendering and composting are the last phase of production. Lighting lends to the photorealistic quality; every frame is rendered individually, applying real-world dynamics of the shadows, bounced light, and illumination from multiple light sources.
Smoke VFX Development
Environment (Cave) setup
FINAL | video
With pivots, creative redesigns, and a quick turnaround time, we were able to create this fierce campaign. Music and sound design was created by our fearless CD David Rasura, modeled after a stock track the agency had selected for reference. This project established our "Mythical Creature Unit" at Taylor James, as it is the first of mythical scaled creatures we’ve created, out of many more to come.
FINAL | print
