Suspect creates a dream for Christina Aguilera
For the second year in a row, New York-based conceptual design, animation and VFX studio Suspect brings us sexy CG for Christina Aguilera's signature fragrance, Inspire.
In this 30-second spot directed by famed fashion photographer David LaChapelle with creative direction and Flame work from Suspect's Tim Crean, the true essence of Christina is captured through a theatrical, dreamlike expose. From the dark corners of an early Hollywood, Gothamesque-style set appears the flawless blonde beauty dressed in a glamorous pink gown.
A mystical CG bubble quickly captures her attention, inspiring her to gently reach out and poke at it. As the bubble bursts, it multiplies into several smaller incarnations. The once coy, charming music crescendos to an upbeat bravado. Christina reaches her palm to the sky to meet one of the rogue bubbles which then morphs into her new signature fragrance bottle.
Suspect's CD/lead Flame artist Tim Crean comments on the effort, "SelectNY entrusted us with conveying Christina's brand image for the second year in a row which is a great feeling. We started with mood boards from David (LaChappelle) and began the intensive testing phase. He's a pretty free-form director which is often challenging from the VFX standpoint, but he followed the board pretty closely on this one and shot a lot in camera to get an authentic theatrical vibe.
"LaChapelle's team built amazing sets and incorporated cool props to which we added our CG touches to extend their size and scope."
Suspect's VFX supervisor Eric Swenson, was tasked with the challenge of having Christina reacting to the realistic reflections, set extensions, and various props on the shoot day. In order to keep LaChappelle's vision realistic and consistent, Suspect additionally changed some of the framing for specific shots.
Executive producer Rob Appelblatt notes, "With a celebrity such as Christina, you have to be super buttoned up and have a tight knit group of producers and artists to execute this level of work within the confines of a celebrity's schedule. We knew we'd only have her for one day, and there wouldn't be any reshooting.
"Making sure our work was done in the pre-pro phase was critical. By recently expanding to an additional floor, and steadily adding 3D artists for the division, we're able to move forward with our goal of working on these types of high-profile design/animation projects."
Source: Digitalartsonline.co.uk
