Unbox Possibility

Dinnertime? It’s a friends-and-family affair - no more so than in the first integrated campaign for recipe box company Gousto by M&C Saatchi, who invited Framestore Pictures Director William Bartlett, as well as Framestore’s VFX artists, to the table. The hero 30” spot uses a full-of-life jack-in-the-box concept to demonstrate Gousto’s ‘Unbox possibility’ proposition, highlighting the boxes’ role in changing mealtime experiences for the better for its customers.

Concept Design

Animation

Visual Effects Supervisor

The film sees towers of mealtime elements spring seamlessly from Gousto boxes, showcasing the breadth of cuisines on offer through the meal subscription service. The sequence was first designed and previsualised, blocking out the movement of the recipe elements. A basic kitchen set-up was then captured on shoot, complete with plates and boxes. The featured food and cooking elements were individually shot using photogrammetry, in doing so forming the base of highly accurate and textured models which would be carefully pieced and arranged by Framestore’s artists.

cg animated coriander, ginger, tomato, red onion and red peppers tossed in air with a speech bubble text 'yum'

Working entirely in Nuke, and making full use of the V-Ray plugin, the VFX team worked through multiple iterations of the element ‘towers’, refining the animation to create realistic movement, and customising the behaviour of each to reflect the recipe on show. The kitchen environment was extended and finessed, adding homely touches to further land Gousto’s message that mealtimes that are about more than just the ingredients.