Framestore has directed a commercial for BPL Marketing and iRobot which sees a bathroom built entirely in CG navigated by the very clever Scooba 230 floor washing robot. What appears to be a normal bathroom transforms into a haven for bacteria with the help of some animated annotations. But the ingenious iRobot cleaner – every home should have one – makes neat work of the bathroom’s tight and infested spaces.
After wooing the client with an impressive initial design and concept pitch for a 30-second TV commercial, Framestore’s very own Tim Osborne was commissioned to direct and produce the ad. Despite never having worked with CG before, the client had enough faith in Tim to centre their commercial around a photorealistic bathroom. The actual Scooba robot, including its inner workings, had to be recreated in a similarly photorealistic CG style so as to be in keeping with its environment.
Tim and his team managed to design, build, animate and render the entire project in less than five weeks. The CG team, led by Richard Coley, created the bathroom; while the design and graphics look were developed in Flame by Tim. The spot was enhanced with shots of water pools that were filmed specifically for this project. These were combined with asset library elements to bring the commercial together.
Framestore pulled out all the stops by creating a version of the commercial two weeks ahead of delivery for The Electronics Show. Under normal circumstances, such an early delivery would have been impossible. But thanks to having both directorial and VFX control, Tim and his team were able to pull it out the bag.
The client was so happy with the end results that Framestore is now in discussions with them about directing and producing the next iRobot campaign, as well as developing additional media opportunities with augmented reality and banner applications.