XYZ Studios: Australian Grown

Posted by Boca Ceravolo

Commissioned by agency Cummins Nitro, Australia’s XYZ Studios created this stunning new :30 spot for “Australian Grown” to introduce their new logo and kick off a national campaign.

As usual, XYZ Studios did an exceptional job. The camera’s soaring movement through a fully animated native Eucalyptus tree, filled with a multitude of meticulously placed and animated produce, is truly engaging. The whole spot brims with life, getting the message across in a clear and entertaining way.

Here’s a few words about the project from XYZ Director Tim Kentley:

“Growing from the simple idea of following a seed from germination through to maturity the concept literally sprouted and grew branches. The first challenge was creating an animated tree that was both natural and controllable. On top of this the tree needed to grow realistically! The solution called for propriety scripting, and a lot of technical work and lateral thinking from the 3D team: we were choreographing over 19,000 animated leaves!

Every aspect of this animation had to be in sync for the spot to work. The look of the tree and the produce, their animation, the camera move, the backgrounds, everything was inter dependant, as it had to work as a single shot. One shot is not the easiest way to tell a story, but it is a very rewarding one – it makes the evolution of the tree constantly engaging – a lot of people comment that the 30 seconds passes very quickly”

“Australian Grown” is on air in Australia at the moment, with CG imagery also output for a press campaign.

Watch QuickTime


Title: Australian Grown
Client: Australian Made
Agency: Cummins Nitro
Agency Producer: Georgina Toole
Agency Creatives: James Proctor, Tian Murphy, Tom Jackson
Directorial Studio: XYZ Studios
Director: Tim Kentley
Producer: Amy Veerman
3D Lead: Clinton Downs
Lighting: Thai Bach
Modeller: Cedric Austria
Animators: Tim Kentley, Cedric Austria, Clinton Downs, Chris Burness, Chris Burns
Compositor: Daniel Stonehouse
Music: Mark Landon
Sound Design: Gusto

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12 Comments

oeuf

what happened to the PandaPanther post?
I was adding a comment… :(

This piece is beautifully done! Can’t imagine the amount of work to do the leaves!

carl

noob question: how do you achieve that kind of animation any people here can post some links that would guide me. thanks in advance:)

allot

I guess its years of experience in animation… mixing 3D with 2D, going backwards and forwards, changing textures, lighting and timing in 3D, changing cameras again, rerendering, exporting cameras into AE, retouching, vignetting, blurring, grading… and so on, until you are happy with the result or you are running out of time!

monovich

there is lots to like here, but that tree is a bit crude considering other growing stuff thats been done in the recent past.

Pete

Yeah this isn’t exactly new either. The fruit and leaves look plastic as well. Still it’s a nice resolve and an impressive technical achievement. Maya’s nCloth would probably make doing the leaves easier a second time round.

Dwarfish

Um I do not like this very much the whole thing is very plastic. hmmmmm

Clucky

I thought this execution doesn’t really do the concept much justice. As a few people have mentioned above me, it is too plasticky. When I think of Australia, I think of the ironical juxtaposition of barren haunting gumtrees with the lush farmlands and tropical rainforest of the more fertile parts of the continent.

There is very little of that atmosphere conveyed here. On the overall it could probably be a little more whimsical. The animation is good, but the look needs more layers of specialness, I think.

As a non-technical person, maybe I don’t know everything there is to know about making something that looks even half as good as this, but as a visual person, and as an Australian, I don’t feel this best represents the pride we should take in our bountiful land.

unknown soldier

looks very similar to a piece that Mainframe did for MasterCard. check it out…
http://www.mainframe.co.uk

tree growing quickly, rotating camera move, fruit and funny objects popping on?
hmmm

KMFIX

I too would have liked to have seen better texturing on this, but this also may have been the look they were going after. Not everything has to be photo realistic, specially something surreal like this.

I think the animation and camera moves are very well done.

Marc B.

Hey Marc B. in da house. Here’s my expert opinion.

This ad seems not a fish nor bird. I’m not sure what they were going after. Stylized or photo-real? I feel that if they did one or the other properly it would have been much better.

Next time dear people in the industry ask yerselves are you a fish or a bird?

El Gordo

Its not bad but not really that interesting either. Its been done many times. Gimpville in Oslo did one for a car brand last year that looks very similar.

armand

in indonesia, there’s an ad looks a bit like this too, and it’s been out for 2-3months ago. it’s a tree growing out with fruits growing all over in it..

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