Scientific studies, social media and fitness trends all agree on one point: America’ desire to rekindle with nature is stronger than ever. An active, natural lifestyle has become everyone’s #1 aspiration, from celebrities to CEOs. Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold is the first widely-available organic light lager for the US market, positioned as the premium choice for those looking for a closer connection with nature, despite their hectic urban lifestyle. At the time of the release, the fitness trend called Animal Flow was gaining traction, inspiring Americans to follow their nature and explore a kind of amalgam of yoga and primal, quadrupedal, animal-inspired movements when training. This spot is inspired by those culturally relevant trends, promoting Pure Gold organic beer not just fitness to enthusiasts, but to all those concerned with a more natural lifestyle.

The VFX challenges fell into two categories. The cleanup of the rigging set ups which allowed the in-camera talent to move in animalistic ways through the city and landscape, and the creation of CG flying human characters. The CG characters were modelled, detailed and hand animated. In addition the 3D team built a vast and varied crowd system which was customised for this project for the larger crowd shots. This system was built to be able to provide up to 168000 character variations (different movements, features and clothing combinations).

One of the largest creative challenges was establishing the correct look, feel and movements for the hand animated flying characters. This involved an exceptional amount of development and research. There is not a correct way for a human to ‘fly like an animal’ through the sky, so this was an extremely creative challenge for both the CG team and the animators.