MPC, Mother NY and Traktor help Virgin Mobile to “Retrain Your Brain” in a surreal new spot.
Raining phones, crazy mirror-ball worlds, a purring shark, and Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips – all this and more make up the insanely surreal “Retrain Your Brain” from Mother NY, Traktor and MPC for Virgin Mobile. The rapid-fire montage lends a hypnotic tone to the minute-long ad, making for a mind-blowing visual spectacle, aided by the CG and 3D experts at MPC.
To give the spot its affect and imagery, MPC’s team of VFX artists, headed up by CD Alex Lovejoy, worked with director Traktor and Mother NY to develop a slew of out-of-this-world concepts to imbue the spot with its hypnagogic feel.
“We had the most fun with our ‘Bunny Brain,’ which went through various incarnations and styles, ranging from plastic toy to striped amphibian,” explained Lead 3D Artist Liam Griffin. “We also found ourselves jumping around the studio, trying to decide how a bunny brain would move and where its legs would go!”
MPC’s Marcus Wood joined Traktor on-set, allowing them to collaborate in real-time to map and rig various scenes for seamless VFX integration. The MPC team was then tasked with creating all the screen composites for each scene, adding twirling, mesmerizing backgrounds utilizing Cinema 3D, and animated VFX entities using Maya and Mudbox.
“What an awesome project to be a part of; a visual feast of truly cool shots,” said Lovejoy. “And as always it’s great fun working with Traktor and Mother. Our team at MPC had a fantastic time.”
Source: MPC
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
