100% : Virgin Broadband

Cable specifications! Some might say it’s strictly of interest to your more hardcore nerd, which of course we are. But this is what brings everyone the high speed internet we all love. So we thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of creating Virgin’s DOCSIS®3 Tech cable for a multi-platform campaign – both still and moving assets for print and video adverts.

One of the main challenges was creating a photo-realistic cable. This sounds a lot easier than it is, because when you look at a seemingly smooth metallic material in extreme close-up, it is never perfect. The minute imperfections are actually what gives metal its particular character. In previous campaigns, the cables were photographed – setting the bar high.

We developed custom shading networks including microscratch details giving them the imperfections of the real materials.

Virgin_materials

The braiding of the cable housing is perfect, right down to the compression of the snipped ends in the wires.

cgi_by_recomfarmhouse_for_Virgin_2_braid

A myriad of tiny details were included, such as the champfering of the cable housing shown here.

cgi_by_recomfarmhouse_for_Virgin_3_cable

Every bend and kink of the copper wiring was faithfully replicated

cgi_by_recomfarmhouse_for_Virgin_1_copper

For flexibility in animation we developed a rig with which we could quickly adjust both the shapes and the timing of the cable’s growth.

Virgin_roll_animation_625

We made three executions of the idea – Home, Gaming and Video versions.

CGI by Recom Farmhouse for Virgin Broadband - Cable
CGI by Recom Farmhouse for Virgin Broadband - Cable
CGI by Recom Farmhouse for Virgin Broadband - Cable

 

The ads were shown all over the UK in an enormous variety of formats, all working well due to the extremely detailed CGI.

virgin_insitu

Credits:
Made in Maya
Rendered with V-Ray
Animation composited in After Effects
Stills retouching in Photoshop
All by Recom Farmhouse London