Shadowplay's CGI Bonsai Tree Reimagines Growth for BNP Paribas

Shadowplay was recently tasked with creating an intricate image for BNP Paribas leasing solutions in collaboration with Bowline Communications.

The idea was already in place, and it was just a case of bringing it all to life for the team. Bonsai is the ‘Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers’, with its primary purpose being ‘contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower)’.

So with this in mind, the Shadowplay team went to the nearest garden centre to buy up all the bonsai books available, get a nice pot and factored in 4-5 years to get this puppy ready.

According to the Shadowplay team, this project was no small task: "We got to work breeding miniature birds. A painful task that was well worth the effort – in reality we should have just paid more attention to honey I shrunk the kids. Throw in some mini water features and paper mache mountains and you have the perfect visual… if only the above were true. Nope, in reality, it’s all computer trickery as usual. Our resident CGI wizard re-imagined the scamp from bowline and built the model from scratch.

"Throw in some finishing in post and after some tinkering we had a miniature ecosystem living upon a CGI bonsai. A perfect visual to instil the idea of ‘growth reimagined’ for BNP Paribas."

You can check out how the original idea began below and how that then translated into the final image.