Hair-raising challenges

The Skinny

The ad opens on a bald headed cancer patient lying on a hospital bed. The camera pans around the room; we see a sign on the corridor that reads ‘oncology’. A man walks down the corridor towards the ward where the boy is, enters the room and sits on the couch facing the patient. What seems like a solemn moment – accentuated by brooding music – is suddenly transformed when the man does a funny act and makes the boy laugh. As the laughter grows with each new humorous antic conjured by the man – who represents a caregiver from Camp Quality – hair begins to sprout on the boy’s head. Eventually the boy has a full head of hair and looks like a healthy child; we see the super: ‘Laughter is the best medicine’.

The Production

When children’s cancer charity Camp Quality approached The Lab Sydney to ask for their help on their latest TVC it began a chain reaction that produced some of the best visual effects to come out of the leading creative post house to date. Whybin TBWA, Camp Quality’s ad agency, called The Lab’s account services director Michael Eder and asked if they would be happy to do some pro-bono work for the charity organisation on a TVC entitled ‘Laughter is the Best Medicine’. Edner recounts: “We looked at the script which involved a child with cancer who begins the ad bald but, as he gets better, whose hair grows back and thought it was a great idea so we started the ball rolling.”

Melbourne based production firm Exit Films worked closely with The Lab on the schedule for the TVC while a team of 3D artists, compositors, colorists and animators started making the project come to life.

The Post

As the shoot was being done remotely, the Lab team created reference shots in Photoshop of where to place tracking markers on the child actor’s shaved head so that once the footage was received, could then be translated into 3D geometry using Bijou. In order to make the transition look real, the actual ad was shot in reverse showing the child at first having hair and then bald using ‘full head of hair’ reference shots to help create a seamless effect.

3D artist and CG animator Phil Wittner explains further: “We did the Telecine first in consultation with director Adrian Bosich who came to the Lab and gave us a full brief including what final length the hair was to be in each shot for continuity.”

Boisich also wanted temporal cuts in between shots so the effect was subtler. Wittner and his team proceeded into Flame and conformed the TVC, passing on the effects shots to the 3D team.

Wittner continues: “Using a make-up artist and tracking markers with 3D positional data, we created a skull cap from which the child’s new hair would grow. The ‘hair’ was set up using Maya Hair System and then rendered in RenderMan.

“The process also involved doing roughs for timing and growth then the final look with various thicknesses of hair.”

The hair growth effect was complex in its subtleties. Throughout the process, the team at the Lab were in constant consultation with Bosich as to how thick it should look in each shot, when it appears to grow, the direction of the growth, how patchy it should look and how it smoothed out.

With the 3D complete, the Lab’s expert team of compositors stepped in to complete the final look, passes, painting out of the spots and markers and the comping in of all the layers and depth of field.

Eder concluded, “A great deal of effort went into this TVC including creating a variable region of focus in 3D which was challenging for the team but really gave a realistic hair growth pattern. The results speak for themselves and everyone involved was delighted.”