Directed by William Barlett, Framestore Pictures produced the latest, fully-CG commercial for eye-care brand Optrex and advertising agency Havas London.
Several departments at Framestore worked together to design and animate an incredibly detailed mechanical eye for latest, fully-CG commercial for eye care brand Optrex and advertising agency Havas London.
Bartlett worked with Framestore’s art department to come up with the look of the commercial’s mechanical eye which would be made up of intricate cogs and tiny levers and arms. It had to look sleek and well-engineered but represent the complexity of a real human eye.
“The initial references that were used in the brief when we talked about the mechanics of what we were designing were cogs inside a clock. But this quickly progressed into the need to create something that looked really sophisticated and modern”
William Bartlett, Director
Once the design was locked, the commercial’s animators had to make sure the eye moved in a way that was realistic both as the designated internal mechanics and as a real human eye. As such, at every moment in the advert the eye is in constant motion, mostly micro-movements that can almost go unnoticed.
Optrex advert stills – Images courtesy of Framestore
When building the narrative for the film, the director’s treatment from William included a previs version of the commercial which shot-for-shot, essentially stayed the same throughout the rest of the production. The eye sits in an entirely-CG environment made up of a series of glass panels, the composition of which brings to mind a zoetrope, further embracing the ideas of watching moving images.
‘This commercial needed to convey that the human eye is complex yet incredibly fragile and as such needs to be taken care of. This made the project really interesting to work on because we were able to design the mechanical eye asset with a huge amount of detail. And the end result is something that’s not only very effective but also really visually interesting.’
William Bartlett, Director
The only live action element of the commercial is what’s being played on a screen in front of the mechanical eye and was shot in one morning by William Barlett and the team at Framestore Pictures.
Read the story & see more of the latest commercials work from Framestore here.
Credits:
Client: Optrex
Agency: Havas London
Producer: Stephanie Cleak
Creative Director: Dave Mygind
Production Company: Framestore Pictures
Director: William Bartlett
Producer: Noah Enhus
Design and Animation: Framestore
CG Supervisor: Alex Doyle, Amanda Johnstone-Batt
Texture: Mary Doyle
Modelling: Michael John, Aaron Hunwick
Rigging: Robert Joosten
Producer: Sian Jenkins
VFX Coordinator: Megan De Wolf
