Exceed expectations and travel to another dimension. This was the focus of the new commercial for Samsung's new 8K screens integrating digital avatars and reality, made by WondAR Studios and Avocad Film.
The collaboration between Samsung, Avocad Film production house, and the Italian start-up WondAR Studios gave birth to a 3D ad created with motion capture technology. The ad, besides being the protagonist of the social media campaign for the Korean brand, was also projected on the maxi-screen of one of the facades of the Duomo di Milano, making it accessible to thousands of people who cross the city every day.
Samsung 2021 Ad: Storyboard and 3D Characters
The ad for Samsung's new 8K screens was produced in Milan, and the project unfolds in several production phases, starting from the foundations of a storyboard created by Avocad Film, in which a series of shots follow the virtual world of Ginevra and Fabrizio, the two protagonists. In this ad, there are four main subjects, two real and two virtual, of which the latter have taken on the appearance of the former.
Therefore, for both actors, a digital avatar was reconstructed, modeled with Character Creator, a software from Reallusion. The WondAR Studios team was able to shape and express them, taking the protagonists' photographs as a reference.
Once the two avatars were created, it was necessary to recreate the real actors' clothes in 3D versions. Alessio Albanesi, a 3D artist from Milan, took care of this, reconstructing the virtual versions of the actors' clothes with Marvelous Designer .
Samsung 2021 Ad: Animation of 3D Characters with Motion Capture
The entire Motion Capture part was carried out by WondAR Studios, which, through the innovative animation system of the Xsens MVN Link suit, and its related sensor network, can capture human body animation data and recreate a real moving skeleton.
For this particular project, the hand and face tracking system was also used for motion capture
Finally, with Unreal Engine, all the pieces find their place inside a natural habitat in which the light reflects as if it were real and in which the two actors move. The versatility of UE allowed the WondAR Studios staff to manage a virtual direction, in which it is possible to set up cameras, optics, fires, lights, and much more, just like in reality.
The close dialogue between these two worlds makes the boundary that divides them increasingly thin, and for this reason, the claim could only be "have you ever thought about traveling to another dimension?".
The ad was launched on social media and projected on the led wall of one of the facades of the Milan Cathedral. Therefore, this collaboration between Samsung, Avocad Film production house, and the Italian start-up WondAR Studios has created a new multimedia proposal thanks to motion capture technology: 3D animation in Motion Capture.