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2019 ADC Awards - Advertising

The Boy and the Piano

Agency MPC / London + adam&eveDDB / London + Academy Films / London

Client John Lewis & Partners
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Annual ID

ADC_ADV19044G

About the Work

The challenge behind this film was to create a seamless reverse chronology of Elton John’s career highlights with an 'archive' footage feel. Creating a photo-realistic human face is one of the greatest challenges in CG, with the risk of falling short being that the viewer is unable to connect and sense something is wrong. As facial prosthetics were not sufficient in creating a believable likeness, CGI replaced most of the actor’s face, including augmentation of the head, body and hair. The skin surface was achieved using ‘Arnold's Renderer’s Random Walk SSS Shader’ with extremely detailed displacement and colour maps, down to skin cell level bump mapping. On some occasions, completing the shot involved extending the footage: from creating concert halls and extending airplanes, to constructing enormous crowds at baseball stadiums. Every transition between scenes was carefully choreographed with meticulous planning before the shoot, and then stitched back together in compositing.