2011 Maxo Studios   Eff Juice, TVC  
 

The process began with developing a design for the Eff robot character. The Art Director was interested in the Eff robot having a vintage Airstream Caravan appearance. A basic sketch from Cummins Ross displayed a hose injector to transfer the carbonated bubbles into the fruit. I imagined the robot's injector hose to have an accompanying pressure gauge and a periscope to identify its fruity targets. Next I added the round window on the side of the Eff robots tank to display the carbonating bubbles within.

I sketched up a quick Storyboard to analyse the potential movements for the animation.

 

 

I modelled, then rigged the Eff robot and Orange in 3DS Max and began experimenting with GI rendering and shaders.

 

 

Next I created an animated animatic for timing. I blocked out the key movements and then added secondary motion and finesse to the animation. I found I needed to adjust the rig for the Eff robots hose which turns from an IK rig into a FK rig when travelling up the side of the Orange. Many link constraints were used but none were harmed in the creation of this sequence.

 

 

The Orange explosion was created by layering basic blob mesh particle systems. Some of the particle systems targeted the camera to help instigate the transition or wipe to the second section of the ad.

I set up numerous particle systems to create the bubbles in the second section of the ad. Bubbles are generated on the text volume then slightly grow before detaching and floating off in a wave motion to the top of the screen.  The can was 2D artwork supplied by the clients. I replicated the can shape with a cylinder which had particles emitting from the sides and back faces.

 

 

The side window showing internal bubbles was created with a couple of simple "target driven" particle systems. To save on re-rendering I decided to approach this window as an animated map totally separate to the GI renders.