Taking place in an empty swimming pool, the spot emphasises the beauty of the Audi cars as they complete a captivating, choreographed sequence around the pool. As they move seamlessly through the water, they compliment each other perfectly, aiming to show that all Audi models have the same capabilities, tech and attitude. No matter their size.
Whilst much of the car action was shot in camera the entire environment around the pool was crafted in CG. The Mill’s VFX team worked closely with Director Johnny Hardstaff throughout to ensure the extensive work that went into this ambitious project was invisible to the viewer.
VFX Supervisor Adam Droy states ‘The brief was simple; two Audi cars gracefully gliding around a swimming pool… but how on earth to do it?’
Creative Director Dan Williams explains, ‘The scale of the project was huge, and we had several preliminary meetings with Director Johnny Hardstaff in order to find the right approach. There were no actual swimming pool locations that were big enough for the kind of choreography we wanted to achieve. We decided that if Independent could build the tiled interior of the pool, then we would construct the rest of the building in CGI and dial those reflections back into the existing cars.’
Adam continues ‘From the offset Johnny wanted a swimming pool environment which was “bright, sun filled, with strong modernist brutalist architecture, swathes of gravity defying concrete, glass, soft hues and light bouncing” - a place which echoed the Audi models that were to dance within it.’
Dan comments ‘It was very easy to collaborate with Johnny as we share similar aesthetics. Through various references he gave us, we conceptualised the 3D pool arena. Clean, strong lines, a kind of soft brutalism that was the perfect supporting canvas in which the cars could perform.
Having designed the exterior of the pool, we could then give Director of Photography Martin Rhue the exact dimensions and positions of where to place his giant light boxes, so they correlated with the geography of our model.
It’s a fantastic example problem solving on a giant scale, and I’m very proud of how the Mill team rose to the challenge.’
Adam explains ‘Across the shots we added simulated CG water, created CG cars for adding the environment reflections, repaired the pool floor and added a full CG swimming pool environment finishing it all with a punchy modern grade to pop the cars from the fantastically blue background.’