2018 was a significant year for Coca-Cola’s iconic polar bears, for they celebrated their 25th anniversary as stars of the brand’s TV commercials (the polar bear presence in Coca-Cola print ads dates much further back to 1922).
To commemorate the event David The Agency and Lobo created a very special film, showing the polar bear family gathering together for a lovely Christmas dinner. To make this moment even cozier we expanded the characters’ visual universe by giving them a proper house, which hadn’t been done in any of the previous campaigns. Full of evocative details that bring back memories of our grandmothers’ houses, this setting contributes to the feeling of familiarity and warmth conveyed by the film, which was directed by the Alton duo (Felipe Machado and Tiago Marcondes) and produced entirely in 3D animation.
To depict an authentic family scene, filled with intimacy and spontaneity, a crucial factor is camerawork. However, one of the biggest challenges in 3D animation is simulating this “handheld camera” effect in a convincing way.
We worked this issue out by employing a bold technological solution: after being modeled and animated, the scenes were brought into a VR environment. Using a Unity software we wrote especially for this project we were able to animate the virtual cameras manually, as if we were participating in that magical moment with the bear family. This method resulted in a highly realistic camerawork, ensuring the natural, unaffected tone we wanted to communicate.
