The Art of Balance
Read MoreTerritory Studio partnered with AKQA to develop a unique visual experience for the live reveal of the Volvo ES90 at the Artipelag museum in Stockholm. The pre-reveal visual experience aimed to dictate a narrative using abstract storytelling to highlight the car's design and to create anticipation for the grand reveal.
In front of an audience of more than 200 journalists on a 50m-wide seesaw, we created 3 minutes of beautifully crafted CG content which was projected on huge 6 meter screens. The live stream was viewed by over 174,000 people online.
We applied advanced rendering techniques to present realistic core vehicle ingredients: metal, glass, technology, and fabric as an abstraction of the vehicle. The team also used high-fidelity texture mapping, dynamic lighting, and particle effects to achieve a high-art aesthetic. The final product was a seamless blend of digital art and physical space, demonstrating a balance between innovation and design.
The projection onto a custom dual-screen ‘cube-side’ setup and employment of a frosted-glass effect enabled use of motion, depth, and scale to create a 3D illusion that depicted the creative theme of balance.
Deciding on a curated dance of the materials as a route for motion direction, we worked up a previsualisation in Unreal Engine to get the piece as close to live-ready as possible ahead of being able to test the piece on the physical screens.
Whilst we could predict how the projection would work with the screen in pre-visualisation, it was crucial to validate the theoretical with a live test on the custom ‘cube-sided screen’. Here we could assess the aspect ratio and viewing perspectives during a testing phase ahead of the final event in Stockholm.
The project’s meticulous development, from the initial exploration of materials and the concept of “balance” through to the final execution, resulted in a seamless blend of digital art and physical space that created a memorable and impactful reveal for Volvo’s new model.
“Walking into the auditorium and seeing the projection was such an impactful moment, and the reveal projection revealed the car in a unique way and set the tone perfectly for the rest of the event. Thank you to the team for all the support and collaboration in helping us achieve this. We really appreciate the amount of flexibility and willingness that you showed from day one, to help meet us in the middle to meet the needs of Volvo, without compromising the work.”
Vedrana Plestic, Associate Project Director | AKQA
Whilst direction ended up taking a different route, we had enjoyed exploring the concept of a sculpture made of balanced materials to represent the creative theme as part of this project.
