Defy Boundaries

‘Defy Boundaries’ features characters breaking out of their own chrysalis shells to transform into the gaming versions of themselves, then continuing on their adventure to meet up with fellow gamers in a future-punk city.

Working alongside Dell Blue Creative, the project was supported end-to-end by Framestore and Framestore Pictures, from pre-production, through to shoot, VFX supervision, and with a final grade by Company 3.

From the chrysalis concept developed in collaboration with Framestore Creative Director Sharon Lock, to the environment and character concepts Framestore’s VFX team designed, as well as the execution and development of these ideas working alongside wardrobe, production design and camera, the team worked seamlessly in lockstep. 

“It was exciting to work on something so visually original,” said Butler. “These ideas take a lot more work as everything in the film had to be imagined, designed and built – whether for real in-camera shots, or CG. The whole spot feels different to what we’ve seen out in the world, and I’m very proud of it and of Jordan and the team’s excellent VFX work from pre to post-production.”

To create the engrossing visuals, Framestore’s VFX team was tasked with creating a seamless transition between characters in their various costumes. 

“Using a butterfly chrysalis as inspiration, we designed an effect in which the initial costume forms an outer shell and eventually breaks away, revealing the new, underlying costume,” said Framestore VFX Supervisor, Jordan Carroll. “Lining up the multiple takes, transforming and warping body parts to align seamlessly took extensive compositing work before camera tracking and roto-animation could take place.”