L’OCCITANE. Cultivators of change
Timelapse, Liquids and VFX

With the release of the Immortelle Reset Serum by L’Occitane en Provence, we were tasked by our friends at DVEIN to work on the practical effects of the ad. 

Our main task was to film plant growth timelapses, using both our expertise on developing automatic motion control and stop motion rigs, and on techniques to germinate and grow plants.

Most of the work was devoted to the investigation on the beads that make for the striking golden shots, the mediums and the containers they were to be in. Trying to reach an equilibrium between fluidity, beauty and visual similarity to the advertised product proved to be a challenge. It led us to investigate an array of chemicals, dyes and organic materials to get the colours and textures, but most importantly the reflections and refractions that we wanted to achieve.

We were also asked to develop a series of material experiments. They involved the creation of on-demand hoarfrost, for which we created an ad-hoc environment inside a thoroughly modified industrial freezer.