Happy New Year 2025
Animation & VFX
Client: Axisology (Internal R&D)
Year: 2024
Elevating a New Year's Greeting into an Unforgettable Visual Experience.
The Challenge
To celebrate the New Year, Axisology’s internal challenge was to create a shareable, high-impact video that did more than just send good wishes. The project needed to serve as a powerful portfolio piece by seamlessly integrating complex 3D and VFX elements into a real-world environment, demonstrating our capabilities for large-scale, photorealistic digital production.
Our Objective
Our primary objective was to achieve a photorealistic integration of CG elements, including the metallic “2025” and a mass of party balloons, into the live-action footage. This required developing a dynamic, physics-based simulation to govern the balloons’ motion and mastering the 3D camera tracking of the moving plate for perfect alignment. Critically, we also used this internal project to test and enhance our VFX pipeline, ensuring it is optimized for future large-scale client productions.
The Solution
Our solution was a structured, multi-stage digital production pipeline. The process began with comprehensive pre-production, including a site visit, on-site photography with precise environmental measurements, and reference gathering to ensure a data-rich foundation for the CG work. After capturing the live-action plate, we performed precise 3D camera tracking in Syntheyes. The environment was modeled in Maya, while the complex balloon release was developed as a dynamic physics simulation in Blender. All CG elements were rendered in Blender Cycles and then integrated with the live footage during the final compositing stage in After Effects to create the finished shot.
Key Highlights
-
VFX Pipeline Validation
-
Advanced Simulation Showcase
-
High-Fidelity Portfolio Asset
Key Project Specs
Client: Axisology (Internal R&D)
Services Type: Animation & VFX
Year: 2024
-
Timeline: 15 Days
-
Team Lead: Sarfaraz Yeaseen
Key Highlights
-
VFX Pipeline Validation
-
Advanced Simulation Showcase
-
High-Fidelity Portfolio Asset
From Rapid Concept to A Clear Creative Blueprint
Every ambitious visual project begins with a clear and actionable plan. For this fast-paced internal initiative, our pre-production phase was focused on efficiency and creative clarity. After a thorough on-site analysis of the location, we established a visual direction by creating a mood board of real-world references for lighting, textures, and composition. This informed a series of concept sketches, allowing us to quickly iterate and define the final shot’s celebratory aesthetic, ensuring the final VFX work was guided by a strong, pre-visualized creative blueprint.
Precision Camera Tracking for Seamless Integration
A flawless integration between live-action and CGI is only possible with a perfect 3D camera track. Using Syntheyes, we analyzed the source footage to precisely replicate the real-world camera’s movement, lens distortion, and perspective within a digital 3D environment. This process creates a rock-solid foundation, ensuring that every CG element we introduce—from the massive “2025” balloons to the smallest roadside decoration—locks into the scene perfectly and moves as if it were physically there on the day of the shoot.
Building a World: Dynamic & Photorealistic CG Assets
A believable world is built on more than just a single hero element; it’s the sum of many dynamic parts working in harmony. For this project, we developed a range of bespoke CG assets, each with its own unique simulation. The centerpiece was the complex, physics-based simulation of hundreds of balloons erupting from the gift box. However, the realism was sold in the details: the subtle cloth dynamics of the festive flags, the procedural wind affecting the roadside balloons, and the photorealistic lighting and textures on the hero “2025” asset. This multi-layered approach demonstrates our ability to not only create stunning focal points but also to build rich, living environments that fully immerse the viewer.
The Final Composite: Integrating Digital and Reality
The final stage of any VFX shot is the composite, where all the individual layers—the live-action plate, the CG elements, and the color grade—are meticulously assembled. This breakdown reveals our end-to-end process, from the initial undistorted backplate and environmental cleanup to layering in the fully rendered 3D assets. Through careful color correction and final grading, we ensured that the lighting and shadows of the CG elements perfectly matched the real-world environment, creating a single, seamless, and cinematic final image that transforms a simple road into a scene of celebration.
