Around the world, opticians advertising is dominated by humour. It's a category convention that is completely out of kilter with the reality that eye health is fast becoming a major health concern amongst over 40's.

To address this tension, we made it Vision Express' mission to look after the nation’s eye health.

The minute long ad takes the viewer on a high definition, mesmeric journey through a grandmother’s eye to the sounds of Roberta Flack’s 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face'.

The film climaxes with the sight of the woman's grandson forming on the back of her retina, before snapping back into the real world.

The message is clear - look after your eye health and your vision will last a lifetime.

The impact both on the business and within culture was immediate.

The ad was Campaign’s Ad of The Day and Editor’s Pick in Creativity.com. Eye exam bookings increased by 5% year on year for the first six weeks of the campaign, and within the first week of launch four national newspapers had written about the nation’s collective ignorance of the importance of eye health. Oscar winning film star Judy Dench even went off script to admit she can't read anymore due to eye health issues.

The national conversation had begun, and Vision Express was right at the heart of it.

Live action SFX elements were generated using several techniques. High-speed cameras shot hi-res plates of specially formulated inks and particle suspensions dissipating through water to create ‘plumes’ of colour. A periscope lens submerged in a tank travelled across a sculpted floor to create passes of supernatural ethereal landscapes. Particles were floated in water and the camera passed through them to create the sense of motion and ‘journey’ so integral to the film. Shot on Red, the camera was positioned at different angles to various tank setups to achieve multiple looks with different lenses according to the relative scale and conceptual position within the eye.

CGI was generated in SoftImage and rendered using Mental Ray. A combination of hand- and procedurally-animated hand-modeled elements were created for those areas of the eye where more flexibility was required in terms of look & feel. This enabled the team to tweak and adapt the geography of the journey and its component parts right up to the final stages. The master comp was in After Effects, with individual scenes comped in AFX or Nuke. Some shots combined live action with hi-res stills, shot elements and CG geometry to complete a single camera move.

The VFX team was 6 artists working for 5 weeks. Close proximity and constant communication meant they were able to collaboratively achieve a huge amount in a short space of time. The post-producer attended the shoot, conformed the rushes and distributed them directly to artists to ensure no break in the communication chain and no time wasted.