de Bijenkorf - Only at de Bijenkorf
The 30sec commercial debuted on de Bijenkorf’s Facebook and has been viewed over a 107 000 times, has over 2000 likes and over 600 shares. This is on average 3 times more views, likes and shares than any other video on their Facebook page. This is also de Bijenkorf’s first full animated film ever, but was so well received by their target group we received several requests for stills from the film to frame or save.
This is also the first brand film de Bijenkorf has made in years.
To visualise the story of a little bird that goes on a midnight stroll through De Bijenkorf en discovers his inner beauty we created a full CG bird and peacock. During the shoot a stand in (taxidermy) bird was used as reference and the necessary light information and set details were captured. Both characters where keyframe animated and stylised slightly in their design to create a more appealing look. They also have subtle humanly traits, like the blinking of the eyes and little smiles in their beaks. The small bird has 7873 feathers covering his body, 108 of them are in his tail and wings. These feathers are controlled by 500 bones with 126 controls.
The feathers of the peacock are based on feathers flown in from Paris, which are analysed piece for piece and recreated in every detail. The peacock has 9 different kind of feathers, with a total of 33712 covering his body and only 165 of them are in his tail. These feathers are controlled by 1400 bones with 80 controls.
Two CG birds covered in a full feather groom, with slight cartoony proportions to allow for a more human range of emotions.
Each feather of the birds is individually placed & shaded. Building this up creates complex patterns & markings. The Peacock has complex feather shaders to represent the iridescent/reflective quality of a peacocks plumage. So we could capture the greens & blues & the colourful way in which light reflects off of them.
Our bird has a complex set of controls to allow all feathers to align in its wings. Opening & closing wings required a lot of attention to detail & research to match the anatomy of a birds wing feathers & their flight movement.
We integrated the birds into the live action plates & took high dynamic range photography of the scenery & used it to recreate the on-set lighting. Each shadow & highlight was carefully matched. Real life camera movements were tracked to create a virtual camera so that our CG sat perfectly in the hand held live action plates.
Nothing compares to the moment all the lights in the Bijenkorf are completely shut off and the calmness and silence fills the floors. It’s a moment that actually never happens, to be precise. But for the new brand campaign ‘Only at de Bijenkorf’ the fabulous department store is shown in a new light.
“Being in the Bijenkorf at night is a very unique feeling and a special experience” explains the director. “This extraordinary moment is the guiding line throughout the story. The little bird starts exploring the department store and begins to feel more unique with every step. We worked closely with the agency to bring this emotion to every aspect of the film, from animation, and colour grading to the music.”
