Duracell and Mikros MPC Partner on Full CG film for New 'Optimum' Range

Duracell has launched its new 'Optimum' range with its new 'Bunny TV Address' commercial. Initially planned as a live-action based project, the 2020 confinement finally pushed the brand to produce it in full CG.

Building on its eight-year collaboration with Duracell and its expertise in visual effects, animation and post-production, Mikros MPC was involved from the earliest stages of the project and delivered a full range of services, including pre-production, direction, production, filming, ..... up to the final delivery of the main film and its nine short versions. 

For this campaign, photorealism was paramount for Duracell. Shaun Severi, director at Mikros MPC, was involved in the entire process of making the main 30 sec full CG film. He comments: "A full CG movie requires a lot of interactions between the director, CG artists and the production teams. As the project was mostly completed under quarantine, we adapted our way of working with regular video conferences. Being part of the Mikros MPC team aided my direction, as I knew all the processes, how to get the best results from the artists, what was creatively possible or not, what shots were needed or useful or not. And of course, I was available for the teams and the clients anytime. In the end, I believe we were 10 times more effective." 

More than a character or mascot, Bunny is considered at Mikros MPC as an icon that deserves special attention. Since 2012, Mikros MPC has become the guardian of Bunny's visual identity, ensuring consistency and integrity across all media worldwide. As the character evolved, Mikros MPC teams refined his features, movements and emotions and were able to overcome the technical and artistic limitations imposed by his graphic charter by developing his rig with great detail. In particular, Augustin Paliard, lead animator at Mikros MPC, developed a complete library of assets based on previous films and the latest evolutions, which brings together all the poses, facial expressions and mouth shapes according to the phonemes that can be used in every countries. No less than 50 expressions are listed in this library and approved by Duracell, that ensure the standardization of all the creative intentions on Bunny.

This extensive work allowed the team at Mikros MPC to develop more subtle expressions and make Bunny look less theatrical, – to bring a higher level of acting to this mascot. In the film 'Bunny TV Address', Bunny is he’s cheekier than before, more energetic, happy and fun. Anna Rodrigues, executive producer on the project, explains: "In TV Address, Bunny becomes a communicator, a selfless politician, who urges household appliances to get the best of them, while also sending messages to humans.”

Besides Bunny, the sets were also created in full CG by Mikros MPC. Four different environments were required for this campaign: a shop, a living room, a garage and a city. To create these environments, the teams researched and built all the assets, adapting to each environment and meeting the requirement for photoreal sets. The teams even worked on some almost invisible details such as sockets, wires, TV stickers, kids toys and pencils in order to make the environment credible. This required detailed work on texturing, shading and lighting to fit the ambiance of each setting.