How we combined live action and 3D

How do we effectively showcase a range of products in a cool, dynamic way in under 10 seconds without relying on text?

Like most answers to creative challenges, we start by crafting a unique visual solution that allows us to show rather than tell.

In this instance, we wanted to explore a VFX solution and picked a brand to be our test subject. We found a product range, Sxollie Cider, and came up with an idea for a shot. An impossible shot at that. A shot where a bottle cap flips up into the air towards the camera lens, rotating perfectly to display the brand’s logo and lands next to the product in situ.

Filming this for real would have taken 100s if not 1,000s of attempts and a huge amount of luck. Instead, we chose to film the opening and closing frames in camera and use a 3D model for the bottle cap action. The main benefits of this are around control. We can now manipulate the speed of the spin, the position in the frame, the focus and the image displayed on the cap - all tweaked to perfection in post-production.

We decided to push the idea a bit further. Instead of one bottle cap flipping we opted to visually showcase the range by switching colour in mid-air whilst spinning a few more times.

You’ll be able to see in the video below why this is something that trying to match in camera would have been impossible.

There have been many occasions where we’ve produced video content and our clients have had a brand refresh or an update to the packaging. Normally, we would have to reshoot the content (this is still the case for certain projects) whereas for this particular example we could very easily change the bottle cap style and re-render the project.

It took a mix of Blender and Adobe After Effects to model, light, texturise, animate and grade the final image to fit seamlessly with the live action footage from the camera. We added in blemishes and imperfections to the bottle cap to make it fit the lifestyle scene more realistically and make people question whether it was shot for real or all done in computer.

Traditionally, 3D, VFX and advanced motion graphics were something we had to outsource at Dead Pixel as it’s a very specialist skillset. So we hired an extremely talented motion designer in Summer 2022 to help push this area of our business and achieve these impossible moments. This means that we can now develop concepts that combine live action, and a bit of 3D, to execute in a very quick and cost-effective manner.

Although this was a test, it certainly caught the attention of the brand as this is what they had to say: