Budweiser - “Messi”
DIRECTOR
In the weeks leading up to Lionel Messi’s historic 644-goal record with Barcelona, Deutsch and Budweiser were readying a special edition bottle and series of events to celebrate.
I was the VFX creative director for their Sergio Ramos “Be a King” spot the year before, so when they asked about a CG film featuring the new bottle I immediately imagined the label crafting itself in a way inspired by the tattoos.
Instead of inky flowing time-lapses this would be a precise and intaglio-inspired construction. Macro cinematography would treat the bottle like a giant celestial object, holding us in suspense as the clues unfold.
I shot macro bottle photos to establish the look and created this test for the label reveal:
This was a truly collaborative process: look dev, camera passes, and label animations were created in Design using After Effects and Cinema 4D while collaborating with editor Ryan McKenna to craft the rough cut.
As passes locked our CG team began rebuilding selects in Maya with final lighting and procedural shaders driven by 8K animated label textures.
The compositors on our 2D team fluidly combined Design elements and CG renders to carry the evolution of the look even further.
