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New Identity For Advil Liqui-Gels

When Young & Rubicam's John Kyriakou challenged The Juggernaut's Craig Small to develop an updated end tag mnemonic for Advil Liqui-Gels, the project initially seemed straightforward.

The current Advil Liqui-Gel pour shot -- the familiar stream of liquid filling the Advil capsule -- had been around for some years and had been very effective in visually demonstrating the liquid-fast benefit of the product.

But Advil as a brand developed rapidly to become the top pain reliever in Canada andY & R needed an updated visual metaphor.

Small wanted to create the piece using CG liquid in order to more precisely control the lighting, viscosity, speed and direction of the fluid.

He felt the alternative, shooting traditionally as in the case of the original end tag, could be unpredictable and potentially more expensive.

Small's brief was to bring a new dynamism to the sequence while continuing to demonstrate the product's liquid-fast properties.

The shot had to work in various lengths, the shortest being 3.5 seconds. Above all, the liquid had to look totally realistic.

Kyriakou and Small brainstormed and came up with several options that were story-boarded by The Juggernaut.

Small showed Kyriakou some CG water references from the website of top German visual effects company Scanline.

Kyriakou was won over, and the final concept of a dramatic tidal wave of liquid barreling toward the camera through a transparent "Advil" logo, was approved.

Despite being only 10 seconds in length, the project proved to be far more complex than anyone had anticipated.

Initial tests had to be abandoned because off-the-shelf software simply could not reproduce the feature film quality Small was striving for.

At one point, the project had to be scrapped and re-started.

With the project already three weeks past deadline, The Juggernaut approached Munich-based Scanline to help create the fluid elements using the company's proprietary simulation software.

Scanline has carved itself a niche in the highly specialized world of CG water, responsible for the jaw dropping effects seen in major features including POSEIDON and 300.

With no margin for error, Scanline's first tests managed to exceed everyone's expectations, much to the collective relief of the creative team.

Within two weeks, Scanline delivered the final animation elements that The Juggernaut then composited in Toronto.The resulting product is a spectacular rush of energy -- a kind of POSEIDON in miniature that Small has dubbed a "tsumnomic."

Project Credits:

The Juggernaut: Creative Director: Craig Small, Storyboard Artists: Matthew den boer, Mike Roberts, Steve Coulter and Executive Producer: Patrick Fay.

Scanline VFX: VFX Artist: Ivo Klaus, VFX Supervisor: Stephan Trojansky, VFX Producer: Michel Mielke.