Go Further
Funding Circle soars into the public eye in newly launched awareness piece, ‘Go Further’. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Framestore worked with agency Lucky Generals to turn out the business lender’s latest television campaign, starring a host of CG characters creatively masterminded under the directorial eye of Partizan’s Antoine Bardou-Jacquet.
The campaign films see the figures of classic rides, in many guises, come to life and power into orbit, in a mirroring of Funding Circle’s impact on inspiring businesses. Of the ten fullyformed character assets created, Captain Galactic is the headliner: created in CG from an initial sketch from Antoine, before being 3D printed for use within the live action shots and photoscanned to ensure that Framestore’s CG model accurately represented the physical model. Further real-life ride models were scanned to provide a basis for the CG rides, with the remainder of assets designed and built from scratch in CG. Framestore’s renowned character prowess was put to task, imagining the figures who would translate the fun-loving feel intended by Bardou-Jacquet.
A vast team of artists set to task modelling, texturing and look developing, animating and lighting the characters, integrating them into footage captured on the shoot in Lisbon; also creating surrounding effects, such as magical light, sparks and condensation vapour trails. The ensuing renders were eased by the strength of Framestore’s pipeline, allowing faster iteration and problem-solving on the job. Attention was also paid to the film’s closing sequence, which features crowds of characters in flight against a custom Earth, fashioned in line with the brand and campaign’s visual language. Said backdrop is in fact a high spec digital matte painting, created to also be used for print - exemplifying Framestore’s in-house ability to maximise assets for fully integrated campaigns.
A playful film requires feel-good colour. DOP Matias Boucard’s novel camera and lens configuration ensured a cinematic feel, enhanced further in the grade. Balance was needed to give prominence to the rides, which were boldly saturated, whilst showing the feel of their used and imperfect paint work. The colour work was completed in reverse: first tackling the magical end-of-day skies, before nudging pastel tones into the earlier scenes, having calculated the rides’ journey at roughly 20 minutes, within the context of the spot.