We had a look at Mathieu's (the art director) idea which was of a Naval Battle between Microsoft and Apple.
We had a look at the style. Think Delacroix and the French romantic period.
Then we considered the size. It was going to be printed as a special billboard poster at La Defense at 58 metres wide x 11 metres high. Larger than one side of our street!!
It was a tall order but with consideration we decided that the best option was to use a visual effects artist from the film industry to digitally mimic a realistic oil painting.
We know some amazingly talented visualisers and matte painters - so it was just a concern if they had a window open to start on the job straight away.
We got in touch with Chris Thunig. An amazingly talented guy who we have worked with in the past on a digital painting of 17th Century London in the style of Rembrandt. We had total confidence he could do it. Chris had just re-located from London to LA and was not starting his new job for 2 weeks so the timing was perfect. Even though he hadn't received his furniture yet and was working temporarily on a few jobs from his cardboard box desk!
Now thats creativity!
Anyway - we called him up and sent over the layout, timings and style to consider. In no less words he said 'it's impossible'. Firstly - his computer was not be capable of running a digital file 58 metres wide - and secondly - it would be seriously stretching him creatively to work at such intense detail on such a large image. Considering that one brushstroke would almost be 1 metre high!
So firstly to resolve the technical computer problem we had a custom made computer built at (Boxx Systems) in Texas in 1 week. The computer was a beast and totally capable of handling this file size.
Then we brought in an extra pair of hands to help Chris out. This was Tiffany Lo. A disney trained artist, now working in visual FX on films in LA. Her role in the 'Naval Battle Scene' was to create the background elements - sky, sea etc - with Chris working on the foreground detail. Sorted!
And then a week later we got a second enquiry from Publicis. They had another visual to do. Could we do it? Chris and Tiffany gave us a straight out nope. They had worked solidly around the clock for 2 weeks and were on the brink of exhaustion when the 1.8gig image was finally uploaded onto the Publicis FTP.
So - could we think of anyone else? Only 5 days to produce another digital oil painting in a Masters style??!!
Undefeated and to cut a long story short we did it. With the help of his agent in San Franciso, Melody Meisel Klein we brought in Craig Mullins - the Grand Master of the visual FX industry. Craig finished in 5 days on schedule and to a breathtaking standard. The creatives at Publicis were overwhelmed at the quality of work in such a short amount of time.
With such a hugely ambitious and an almost impossible schedule we owe thanks to Chris who gave his life to us for 2 weeks. Tiffany for throwing us a line. Melody who was great to work with - forever realistic, charismatic at all times with our client and yet totally dedicated to Craig's needs as an artist. And Craig Mullins - well what can we say. Working out of Hawaii he is one of the most humble and talented digital artists we have ever had the pleasure to work with.
And so - a battle indeed! This 2 week project for 2 impossible images was a battle of uncompromised creativity, technical ability, language and time zones.
It was all finished a couple of weeks ago and we're still buzzing from it all. Helen and Dan have just arrived back from a couple of days in Paris visiting the Publicis team and all the images around Paris and La Defense. Here are some pics.
Images by Chris Thuni & Tiffany Lo
Images by Craig Mullins
