Gatorade “Fierce” featuring Bryce Harper by TBWACHIATDAY and Mill+ captures intense moments of sport where every move made by the athletes creates a stunning liquid reaction. Directed by Mill+’s Paul Mitchell, the athletes are shown dominating their opponents in abstract stadiums in these powerful commercials.

Gatorade‘s first animation based campaign, it’s a fresh approach from both a creative and technical standpoint. An exciting project for Mill+, who worked incredibly closely with the creatives at TBWACHIATDAY from beginning to end, Paul explained: “This project required the whole range of abilities from the studio, from the creation of the concept’s visual style to the live-action direction. We used everything from HDR and witness cameras to a motion capture shoot and body scans – all comprehensive behind the scenes work to gather information for creating these fluid effects.”

“These new Gatorade “Fierce” spots are not just exciting technical commercials but powerful crescendoes of sporting moments. So, throughout the project, we kept going back to the questions “What is the essence of Fierce?” and “What is the story we’re telling?” to maintain both elements. We were always looking to build the tension and push the moments further. It was an incredible challenge for The Mill and Mill+ and drew on all our strengths in both technical skill and creative storytelling.”

Josh Hatton, shoot supervisor and 3D lead artist, further detailed the technical process: “This effect hasn’t really been done before, so it was challenging trying to pin down the exact look of the spots in our preparation. But we did have ideas as to how it should look, so we generated style frames of key moments in the action, enabling us to talk through the concept and set a look to aim for. From there, we drew up draft storyboards to help tell the story until we landed on the resulting concept.”

“The liquid is a character in its own right. And ultimately, after intense development, the behavior of the liquid became more magical in its style. It’s a lighter-weight effect than actual water would be, which gave us more fluid movement and, therefore, more dramatic visuals.”

Head to The Fierce Collective to find out more.