Not Even Lockdown Can Stop the Force of a Cheese Wheel

French director Hervé de Crécy, who shared the Best Animated Short Film Oscar for 'Logorama' in 2010, teams remotely with the VFX crew at Platige Image to create a massive urban Candyland complete with mini cheese superheroes. The film was in production over five months with the work being completed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Platige's aim was to create a fictional world to be a base for a visually appealing story. In order to achieve the best possible result, the Warsaw-based studio used a total of over 250 CG assets to produce the spot, which is 70% computer generated. Creating the main character needed nine models involved. Moreover, every product placement in Babybel City has been designed and animated separately.

What made this highly advanced work possible was Platige’s unique system based on the ads projection which then changed into holograms, loop or glitch. All of these functions were available at the design stage. Combining digital elements with shots from the camera set was also a big challenge.

The assets prepared for Babybel were very specific. On the one hand, there were characters; on the other, a huge portion of functional design. Especially for this project, the team created several dozen mini advertising campaigns for products such as donuts, ice cream, cookies, hot dogs, pizza. The facades of buildings, specific cars, trains, airships, drones, carts, advertising stands, transmitters, conveyors and a huge number of signs were created. They also created huge amounts of support geometry, and have devoted much more time to camera mapping than standard. As a result, the digital cameras were 100% consistent with analogue ones. "The effects of CG integration with live cam have exceeded our expectations" says Maciej Szewczenko, CG supervisor at Platige Image.

"I love working with Platige. The amount of work done by the team is impressive, even more considering the short deadlines and the tough conditions. And the thing I really like as a director is - no one never says no to my crazy demands. Good vibes with the team, but overall, excellent work! The images that come out from the studio are really good!" says Hervé de Crécy, spot director.

"I am proud that we were able to co-create such a complicated and demanding spot. We are pleased with the enthusiastic welcome from the global customers together with the legend of the industry - Stéphan Xiberras at the forefront. If we add to the fact that the Oscar-winning director, Hervé de Crécy is also very happy with the final result." adds Mateusz Wiśniewski, producer at Platige Image.

Shooting took place back in January in Bangkok and the spot was completed in Platige Image’s studio in May. Despite the pandemic, work on the production was not interrupted and carried out in accordance with the schedule.

"The pandemic made the agency, client and our teams more empathic and understanding to each other. We started the project when the world was paralysed with fear. An invaluable help for us was the electronic communication system used by Platige and full access to the company's server resources. We are proud of the final result, which is due to the atmosphere of respect and trust, in which all of us cooperated with each other." concludes Maciej Szewczenko.

It is a second joint project by Platige and the French director Hervé de Crécy, following 'Skull & Bones2'. It is also the second project produced by the Warsaw-based studio during Covid-19 pandemic.