Mountain Dew
Mountain Dew is known for it’s energetic branding encouraging movement and power in those that drink their classic green flavor. For this project, I looked to conceptualize an animation enforcing the tagline “You Dew You” while showcasing the variety of products MD has to offer.
I looked to connect that variety of flavor with individuality as well as show how uniqueness can give you strength. It was so much fun getting to play with fluid simulations and fractures inside of Houdini, and modeling the bottle taught me so much.
Animation
My Ideas
I knew I wanted to experiment with simulations inside Houdini so both ideas were conceptually different but were meant to utilize similar tools so that I could learn something new.
Breaking Barriers and Deep Surface embraced the variety of flavors in different ways to show how Mountain Dew has something for everyone so You can Dew You.
Breaking Barriers
This idea explored focusing on the bottle with one of the many flavors Mountain Dew offers. The bottle breaks through the ground into the classic green colored world showing how it’s breaking from the common green color MD is known for. This idea could have many types of flavors replacing the one showcased as well as represents the consumer being themselves and choosing the right flavor for them, not just what everyone else is having.
Deep Surface
Here, we combine all the flavors colors into an ocean of Mountain Dew Colors. We see light being highlighting parts of the surface showing something is there below the surface that we can’t see. This is meant to show how on the surface we are one thing, but there’s more to us deeper down. The water as the colors blend together show a bright side to MD and adds energy and movement through flowing liquid.
Notes:
Move forward with Breaking Barriers and focus for now on getting a running simulation for each of the scenes. Reference soda for the liquid to make sure it feels like the drink that’s being showcased. Also, try adding another element of design into the piece to distinguish it from other Mountain dew ads that are very similar to the direction.
Chosen Direction
Breaking Barriers was my personal favorite of the two directions, and I was so excited to begin with the simulations. I had already created a fluid sim and fracture sim for the style frames, so I went back into those files and began polishing.
The process is slow working in Houdini, because fluid sims are very heavy in geometry, but once I had something ready to export, I took the renders into C4D and added my initial textures over top of them.
Render Test
I wanted there to be slow motion incorporated, but before I got that setup, I made sure the movement was good without any effects.
Notes:
Add the bottle to the space now and improve the look of the liquid. It’s a little too thick for soda. Also, the fractures are blending in a bit too much with the liquid, so improve the textures and add contrast to the look.
Refinement
I spent a good amount of time modeling the bottle to get it ready for the piece. Once that was ready, I got my camera angles ready for the project, and continuing simulating my fracture and liquids.
It was nice having a simulation ready but it really is slow waiting for the movement to preview. It was so relieving to get something in a spot to render out and texture because that took way less time to do.
Refined Render Test
Notes:
The render looks great with the bottle. Continue polishing the simulations and add the final 2D elements to the look for the final. Think about what’s gonna be seen up close versus far away so you can save time with renders and for this shot, bring the camera closer so there’s less negative space around the bottle.
The Finale
I learned so much from this project. I ran into a lot of problems waiting for renders and learning new techniques in Houdini but I love the result! It was so much fun getting to work solely in 3D for this project and see what I can achieve inside of a simulation software.
I was very ambitious with this pitch for a reason: regardless of the success of the project, I would have learned something new. I’m so happy I pushed myself because now I have new abilities in my motion design utility belt to use in the industry.
Animation
