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Creative studio Carbon brings its renowned VFX talents to an absorbing, CGI-animated film that promotes Amway’s Atmosphere Sky air purifier.

Carbon worked in partnership to support a narrative crafted by production agency Gorilla, bringing the project to life by creating visuals which deftly maneuver between a sleek research facility packed with technology and the complex inner layers of the Atmosphere Sky. Carbon’s artists have an established track record of injecting style and interest into product films for brands like Nike, Dyson, and adidas, which makes them an ideal partner to help Gorilla display Amway’s superior air-cleansing performance in a unique and engaging way. “We saw great potential for some dramatic cloud imagery, some great photo-real environment modelling and lighting, and some interesting camera framing and transitions, especially when seeing inside the unit,” says Executive Producer Phil Linturn. “Gorilla was very happy to incorporate some of our creative solutions and additions that accentuated the inherent beauty of the premise.”

During the production process, Carbon’s nimble team of artists began by creating style frames, storyboards, and animatics, before modeling, texturing, and animating everything we see on the screen. Carbon utilized cutting edge tools, including, Fume FX, 3ds Max, Houdini, and Nuke to execute the final mesmerizing, cloud covered Atmosphere Sky spot. “We worked with an incredibly tight team of just two core artists working for the duration, bringing in a third for additional modeling/texturing work, and then a fourth for the final lighting and rendering stage,” Linturn explains.

Carbon faced challenges such as creating a photorealistic CG environment and smoke effects that were both dramatic and convincing. Linturn says that Gorilla’s resounding support helped result in a smooth production process. “The close contact with Gorilla, and the short lines of communication with the client quickly became one of the most appealing aspects at the start of this project,” he adds. “Gorilla knows their client well, and they had complete faith in Carbon, which made us feel confident to take creative risks and offer new suggestions. Gorilla Creative Director Ross Vande Waa and his team were extremely collaborative to work with, and always encouraged us at any stage throughout.”

“This was our first time partnering with Carbon on a project and it was a great experience,” Vande Waa notes. “Right away we felt like our teams aligned well and that our collaboration would make for not only a successful end product, but also an enjoyable process. After presenting the concept and rough storyboards, we quickly found ourselves on common ground as far as the vision for the piece and immediately began looking for ways to further refine it. Carbon’s expertise and willingness to go the extra mile built a high level of trust that we’d found the right partner, not only for this project, but hopefully for many more to come in the future.”