MPC collaborated with M&C Saatchi and Independent to deliver a fully CG commercial for the makers of Ribena, bringing the famous berries to life again. Working closely with director Peter Szewczyk, MPC was tasked with creating photorealistic characters and environments to promote the new Ribena Plus product range.
MPC's brief was to take Ribena's berry character to the next level of realism while retaining its personality and ability to perform. Taking this into account, MPC's team of concept artists developed a mood board for the hero character and his 'immunity support' shield.
Once the look was signed off, MPC's CG team led by Christopher Antoniou was responsible for modeling, rigging and animating the berry as well as three other characters: a squirrel, a woodpecker and a fish. Each of the characters presented a unique challenge. MPC's proprietary Furtility software helped create the realistic fur and feathers needed for the squirrel and woodpecker. The rig for the berry had to be incredibly flexible to accommodate the character's performance whilst retaining a certain level of realism.
Michael Gregory led the 2D team responsible for integrating the CG characters, environments and matte paintings. Key to compositing was getting a base of references to establish the look. Collecting a library of wildlife images helped to establish a moodboard which the artist could refer to for the grade and depth of field. On top of the CG, MPC added 2d water elements, atmospheric particles, lens flares and camera shake.
