This is Absolute’s vfx breakdown for mountain bike brand YT Industries’s new brand film, ‘Return Of The Goat II – New World Order’, starring Mads Mikkelsen and directed by Otto Bathurst through Smuggler.
It was conceived by YT’s Creative Director, Andreas John and Founder/CVO, Markus Flossmann and developed by cycling marketing agency, SHIFT Active Media
Here’s Absolute’s write up on the work.
Danny Duke, who heads up Absolute’s new film and TV department, comments, “ROTG II was the perfect opportunity to embrace the full gamut of award-winning visual effects we’ve dedicated to commercials the past sixteen years. It really bridges the gap between branded content and film. In a world of streamed content, the model of advertising is changing and the trick is to surprise and delight the audience, not to make a really long commercial. When advertising is executed overtly with no subtlety, the product takes precedent over the narrative, which can be disengaging.”
“YT’s engagement with their community and the passion in what they’re trying to achieve truly sets them apart,” he continues. “Both Markus and Andreas have such a unique vision – no other mountain bike brand brings such creativity and storytelling to the table which helps cast the likes of Christopher Walken or Mads Mikkelsen, that’s for sure! Otto and SHIFT ECD, Matt Doman, really supported the brand’s concept and wanted to go bigger in every way. It was great working with the team and I think we’ve achieved something truly unique.”
Matt Turner, Head Of Colour at Absolute, adds, “Otto wanted to really push the look beyond a typical clean, polished, Hollywood aesthetic, into something more raw and edgy. Thanks to the DOP, Jallo Faber, the footage was stunning. Differentiating the looks between the varying locations gave a perfect platform to express the language of colour and Otto was very open to ideas. Freedom within a structure is creatively such a rewarding place to be.”
The VFX workflow behind the film included subtleties such as augmentation of fur, screen comps, eye replacement, grade and beauty clean-up, but the transformation of man-to-goat was by far the team’s biggest challenge – one which allowed Absolute’s CG team to solidify the groom and creature FX pipelines. “Being on set to monitor the cinematography and performance of the transformation sequence was incredibly useful”, says VFX Supervisor, James Coore.
“We used a cloth simulation in Houdini to successfully ‘tear’ the actor’s face away and reveal the goat beneath, working to a particular style of animation briefed in by the client and using a complex rig with both goat and human elements. As always, remote working brings its own challenges and passing this kind of detailed data between parties can be complex, but our Modeler, Rigger, Animator, CFX artists and Groom Artist did an amazing job in keeping communication clear throughout. The scene was shot in an amazing cavern-like wine cellar, which ran under the town of Maribor, Slovenia. I took a lot of survey data, HDR panoramas and lidar scans of this incredible place, so that we could accurately recreate the environment in CG and produce believable lighting.”
The team also utilised CG, alongside DMPs, to transform a limestone quarry into a Utah desert for the hero title shot sequence. “I have always loved the challenge of set extension”, James continues, “The title shot itself was so dramatic – a real money shot with a dynamic camera move, so we didn’t want to overshadow it with the surrounding environment. In the end, we found just the right balance between believability and brilliance.”
Post-production Producer, Dale Heron, comments, “An extensive amount of research and development was completed throughout every stage of the project. Otto and the team completely trusted us to develop their vision; really championing us to push the boundaries.”
“With a shot count of ninety, it’s one of our biggest projects ever”, concludes Danny. “Considering Covid-19’s impact on so many areas of production, maintaining creative focus and belief was incredibly important.”
Watch Return Of The Goat II HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLClDXGzC2c
Credits:
Created by: YT Industries
Written by: Andreas John, Markus Flossmann, Otto Bathurst, Toby Leslie
Agency: SHIFT Active Media
Executive Creative Director: Matt Doman
Business Director: James Dando
Agency Producer: Ben Catford
Agency Producer: Tom Bowes
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Otto Bathurst
Producer: Claire Jones
Executive Producers: Otto Bathurst, Toby Leslie, Fergus Brown
Director of Photography: Jallo Faber
Casting Director: Theo Park
Casting Assistant: Maisie Buck
Editor: Andrew Hulme
Edit Assistant: Kurosh Shabany
Production Manager: Luca Chapman
Slovenia Production Company: Division Film
Executive Producer: Rok Bukovec
Line Producer: Rok Luneznik
Production Manager: Urska Vardijan
Head of Production: Kangjing Qiu
Production Coordinator: Ida Uran
Production Assistant: Ales Pajnic
Colour: Absolute
VFX: Absolute
Additional Edit: Absolute
VFX Supervisor: James Coore
Storyboard Artist: Sean Donaldson
Concept Artist: Ran Manolov, Pedro de la Puente
Colour: Matt Turner
CFX Artists: Ameen Abbas, Craig Healy, Ahmed Ghazy
CG Artists: James Coore, Guliz Demiray, Sersha Lawrence, Ameen Abbas, Craig Healy, Ollie Grant, Matt Lowery, Dan Baiton, Matt Burn
2D Lead: Scott Simmonds
2D Artists: Carl Godwin-Alvarez, Gustavo Ribiero, Lucas Warren, Chris Tobin, Chris Chitty, Katie Rhodes
Graphics: William Smith, Lawrence Scanlon
Editors: Tom Boucher, Thomas Higgins
Executive Producer: Danny Duke
Producers: Dale Amanda Heron, Matt Supersad
Sound Design: Wave Studios
Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer: Jack Sedgwick
Assistant Sound Editor: Jack Patterson
Executive Sound Producer: Rebecca Boswell
Jon Creamer
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