Director, Balázs Simon, calls his advert for Greene King beer, “Definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever done in camera.” The replacement animation using 355 unique laser-cut cans was concepted to highlight the rich history of artistry associated with this English craft beer.

“I think it’s one of those projects that seems really straightforward on paper,” Simon told us, “but much harder to execute! We wanted to show the heritage and expertise that goes into the beer, so we came up with the idea to turn the beer can into a 360° projector so legends can burst out of it and fill the environment.

“So it’s basically a light in a can, right…but it was quite a journey to get there: figuring out how to cut the hand-drawn animation on the aluminum surface, how to create a very small but very bright light source, how to build a set before cutting the cans, considering its shape will distort the projections.” Simon said the whole thing ended up generating, “many, many questions!”

The process, which Simon refers to as, “a mind-boggling challenge,” began with animating the sequence. Then the images got translated to metal sheets by algorithms, and the result of that was laser cut and rolled into 355 unique cans, each containing one frame of the film.

When we asked Simon about specific challenges on set, he said, “I’m not sure there was a single aspect of this production that wasn’t a challenge! We knew that we needed lots of preparation, coming off of the BBC Winter Olympics intro spot, which also played with forced perspective effects.

“I planned out everything in 3D first. The camera movement in Maya, the light bounces in Houdini (to project the hand drawn animation on the cans and get the laser cut files), and light setup previs in Blender.

“Because the film is based on light projections on an uneven surface, it only looks correct from one viewing angle. So, to make it right, we had to focus on one super important thing: reproducing the camera motion as exactly as possible, as everything else was calculated and built based on that. The shape and size of the set, the position of the can, the light’s position in the can, all of this would work only if the camera’s done correctly.

“Fortunately, Dragonframe took this job very well. We only had to figure out how to ‘zero out’ the virtual rig to match the Volo, but once I set up a script for that, we could one click export the camera motion straight from Maya to Dragon and do revisions very quickly.”

We’re glad to hear it!

“I’m happy to say we used every last inch of the motion control,” he went on. “On our test day we realized that the motion was much longer than the physical slider’s travel. To solve that, I built a quick and dirty 3D representation of the rig in Maya that night, displaying lengths. With the help of that we managed to find an angle where the combined motion of the forward travel and the swing arm resulted in the desired distance. We also had to cut into the set a bit to get the moco even closer–fortunately at a part that wasn’t in frame.

“Having the camera in place was only half of the story though.”

The team also had to come up with a light rig in the can that resulted in an omnidirectional point light, and as small as possible to get sharp enough shadows. “In the end we decided to craft a small rotating LED rig (like a lighthouse) to sweep the light across the scene, and shoot go-motion with long exposures. The motor was programmed to the step to do full 360° rotations for each exposure.”

The result is pretty arresting and certainly highlights the legacy of artisanship theme quite well.

But the fun didn’t stop there. “When we managed to get the can cutouts right, I almost felt that the hard part was over. Only when we got to the set did I realize how much work there was still to be done: complex camera moves, go-motion and long exposures, more than a hundred animated DMX channels for the lights, shooting HDRI…with Dragonframe connecting all the dots.

“It was scary but super fun!” That’s what we like to hear—sounds like just the right combination of terror and triumph.

Have a watch and appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the ad…not to mention the beer, and see if it doesn’t make you want to crack one yourself!

For behind the scenes look at the making-of, see below:

Credits:
Agency: House 337
Creative Director: Steve Hawthorne
Art Director: Pete Ioulianou
Copy Writer: Ollie Agius
Head of Strategy: Laura Sammarco
Account Management:: Rich Williams & Kelly Mahon
Agency Producer: Henry Davies
Production Company: Blinkink
Director: Balázs Simon
Executive Producer: Bart Yates
Exectutive Producer: Josef Byrne
Head of Production: Alex Halley
Producer: Sami Goddard
Graphic Design: Tobias Hall
Storyboard Artist: Mysie Pereira
Laser Cutting: Laser Cut Works
Studio Manager: Daisy Garside
DOP: Max Halstead
Gaffer: Elliot Beach
Stop Motion Animators: Andy Biddle @andyrbiddle & Tobias Fouracre
@tobiasfouracre, Chris Ullens
Can Fabrication & Rigging: Andy Spradbery
Set Build: Mattes and Minitures, Leigh Took, Lauren Took, Richard Grant & Mitch
Barnes
Animation Lead: Reg Issac
Animators: Yagizhan Misirli & Andrew Clarke
Clean Up Supervisor: Katherine Spangenberg
Clean Up Artists: Dylan Wilson, Sameera Joshi, Kat Michaelides, Jack Zhang
Post House: GYAR
Grade: Kai Van Beers
Music: Major Tom
Sound: Dugal Macdiarmid
Shot at Clapham Road Studios