UF & Shands turn back time

The Skinny

University of Florida Health System (UF & Shands), a private, not-for-profit hospital that specializes in tertiary care for critically ill patients, launched five new spots completed by award winning visual effects and animation studio Oktobor.

According to VFX producer on the ads Steen Bech said, “UF & Shands has quite a unique set of TVCs. They began with Tracey Rowe from Robber’s Dog initially approaching us and asking how we would tackle the one page script and reference photograph.” In the end Rowe produced five different scripts, each quite different – Explorers, Anthem Rising, Teachers, Birth of Idea and Attractions.

The Production

Lead 3D artist on the project Gary Sullivan set about researching the five spots. He said: “We had to look at all the resources available that were specific to South Western Florida. As a result we included period buildings, the story of Juan Ponce de León – the first Spanish explorer to arrive in Florida and a town called Crawford which features on the side of one of the buildings in the Explorers spot.”

Explorers also featured movement through time related to the town of Jacksonville. Bech continued, “If you look carefully, you will see that all the time changes shown for Jacksonville are true to their specific periods. This was very important to the client as they were trying to encourage local people to use the UF & Shands Health System.”

According to Bech, the live action presented major challenges of its own. He explained, “We had some crazy limitations beginning with the fact that all the talent had to be actual doctors and the spots had to be shot in a real hospital working around the day to day operations. It was really hectic but we got the job done.”

The spot moved ahead quickly with Illustrator Anton Petrov doing style tests using the period research the team had obtained. A rough animatic was done of the whole commercial using basic shapes. Then each single frame would be taken to Petrov who would draw a beautiful lithographic image which, once completed, would be projected into the spot.

The Post

The team used a series of clever transitions to move between time periods including a floating leaf, smoke billowing from a train and slow camera movement to cover distance. A major fire at the turn of the century was also represented with smoke covering the city. The ads were rendered in Mental Ray and were all in HD, which also meant an intense level of detail in each shot.

Bech added, “Anton had to draw 7K images for the team to project and then Nigel Mortimer degraded the images in Flame to get a paper like texture, chromatic aberrations and a level of grain.”

On Anthem Rising, Rhys Dippie, the technical director for 3D and also the lead for particle effects, rendering and lighting started the spot with a loose R&D on half a million particles. This time director Tracey Rowe and Flame artist Nigel Mortimer shot 2D helicopter footage that was then tracked to get a 3D tracked camera.

Bech continued, “We built a full CG version of the building that included a full 3D tree extension. The camera then comes over the tree line where we also built all the trees, borders, clearings, walkways and pathways. Rhys played with the particle system to get the photos moving in the right way and we ran each possibility past the agency to get the one that everyone thought was perfect. In the end the agency liked the effect so much that they kept adding more and more photos which increased the render time but created an amazing effect.”

Key to the look of the Anthem Rising spot was the lighting and work completed in Flame. Bech concluded, “We did 2D light effects in Flame adding fog rays inside the building. We also tightened the 3D with the live action creating an effect that was obviously unreal but not beyond the realms of possibility – it was magical but not hyper real.”

Credits Titles: Explorers, Anthem Rising, Teachers, Birth of Ideas, Attractions Client: UF & Shands, Florida Agency: Lewis Communications Agency Producer: Jenny Burton Executive Creative Director: Spencer Till Creative Director: Stephen Curry Production Company: Grand Large Executive Producer: Steve Horton Director: Tracey Rowe Producer: Lee Thomson DOP: Mike Molloy Editor: Alissa Dedman Post Production and VFX: Oktobor Motion Graphics Artists: Birth: Jonny Kofoed, Guy Thompson Teachers: Sean Dekkers VFX Producer: Steen Bech Illustrator (Explorers): Anton Petrov