We were commissioned to produce the graphic elements for a dry shampoo commercial for Batiste. They wanted a trendy, hip, and engaging commercial with lots of motion, innovation, and vibrant colours using heavy animation techniques that would speak to a younger audience.
Datamoshing is a procedural effect that reacts to the source image, and they wanted to make it flexible so that the effect responds to the source. The client wanted new updates added to the footage, which created challenges in terms of adaptability. Furthermore, the complexity of this animation and the perception of the hologram technique was not easy to achieve within a short amount of time.
We had to come up with innovative ideas and mix the techniques to make it all look like datamoshing in disguise when, in fact, only part of the commercial is datamoshing. This gave us the capacity to customise per the client’s request. We tried an infinite number of possibilities.
As with any other project, we had initial meetings with the client to understand the briefing. After the meetings, we presented different animation tests until we got results that the client was happy with. Animation is a straightforward process where client feedback is fundamental. We added customised and flexible data motion and special effects to reflect an augmented reality look. We also created 3D elements that were tracked to a real scene and to a phone to look like holograms, as well as some transitions using a data-moshing technique.
AfterFX and external plugins, DataMosh, Glitch Effects, and Mocha for the tracking.
The client was extremely happy with the commercial and was considering doing a director’s cut, which isn’t very common in advertising. We learned a lot about colour profiles from working with the VFX house and enjoyed working on this project.
Lead Designer and Animator: Alixe Lobato
Supporting Animation: Federico Parodi
