Rituals Advent 2023

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Following the success of our collaboration on the Advent Calendar 2022 campaign, Rituals entrusted Lukkien again with the exciting task of crafting truly enchating and memorable assets for the highly anticipated Advent Calendar of 2023.

Key Visuals

When designing the key visual images, we needed to consider the need to create an image for each of the four versions of the Advent Calendar. Additionally, we had to ensure that these images could be adapted to various cropping options. All of this had to be done while maintaining consistency across all the different versions.

Since making the whole environment in CGI had no benefit apart from a slight creative control advantage. The decision was made to shoot the environment and add all the content on the table using cgi. Rituals chose a lovely location to shoot, Slot Zeist.

This had the added benefit of connecting the key visual assets with the film assets.

The advent calender and products were modeled to scale using 3Ds Max, the additional assets were modeled in Cinema4D. Shading, lighting and rendering was done using 3Ds Max+Vray.

We wanted the visuals to give you a sneak peak into the beauty and calmness that's waiting for you behind each of the 24 doors.

Raymond

Raymond is not only a Rituals delivery guy, but he is also the heart and soul of
our winter village. Loved by young and old, Raymond has been cycling through
the village in good and bad weather for years to deliver all packages to
everyone's home.

Everyone is always happy to see Raymond, he is constantly greeted, the children
play pranks on him and no one can wait for Raymond to arrive at your door to
hand over your long-awaited package.

Additional Characters

Allow us to introduce you to the lovely characters who help bring our winter village to life. While Raymond is the central figure in our community, he's not the only one contributing to the happiness and warmth.

These supporting characters may not be in the spotlight, but they play crucial roles in our winter village's overall charm. Together, they cultivate a sense of joy and unity that makes every delivery from Raymond a special and cherished moment.

Film

We initiated the village design process by sketching out the layout. Using a few calendars, we physically placed houses on a large sheet of paper. This method allowed us to swiftly experiment with various configurations and establish a path for Raymond to navigate through our village.

Upon receiving the initial draft of the custom-made music, we started working on the animatic. To asses shot length, we filmed ourselves performing various actions which could als serve as a reference for the character animation department.

Just as with the primary visual elements, we aimed to ensure that each shot could seamlessly adapt to all four different calendars. Despite the film's main version lasting 45 seconds, we essentially built a shot library for each calendar, enabling the backend system to effortlessly generate diverse shortened and cropped versions.

We wanted every scene in the video to capture the warmth, togetherness, and eager excitement that defines the holiday spirit.

For all the films, shading, lighting, and rendering were executed using Redshift in the Aces color space, providing us with extensive control and options for a broad range of freedom in compositing.

Nuke was the tool of choice for all compositing, allowing us to construct a custom pipeline tailored to this project. Leveraging various AOVs and light passes, we could swiftly and effortlessly adjust and tweak specific elements without the need for 3D re-renders.

Storyboard

Breakdown

Client: Rituals

Creative Director: Dagmar Brusse

Head of Art Direction: Virender Ramdin

Art Director: Sarah Sellars

Art Director: Ho-Wing Pang

Head of Production: Delphine Tilman

Producer: Floor Groenewegen

Producer: Daan van Hoof

Production Company: Lukkien
Director: Sven Jansen
Executive Producers: Arjan Jonker, Diederick Overbeke:
Post-Producer: Maria Jekot, Diane den Uyl
Concepting: Jos Leene, Sven Jansen, Yannick van Oort
Visualiser: Raoul Rijkers
Editing: Daan van Brouwershaven, Jamie Regensburg
Creative Lead CGI: Jamie Regensburg
Technical Lead CGI: Daan van Brouwershaven
CGI Supervisor: Ron Adriaanse

Character Modeling/Animation: Lukkien

CGI Artists: Jamie Regensburg, Daan van Brouwershaven

Assistant CGI Artists: Casper de Bruijn, Tim Kikkert
3D Simulation: Daan van Brouwershaven
2D Animation: Joné Zakaraité
Matchmove Artist: Daan van Brouwershaven
Compositing: Daan van Brouwershaven
Grading: Daan van Brouwershaven, Chris Kolkman

Sound by Lukkien: Music Composition by Taco Brugma, Sound Design & Mix by Eric van Horssen

Mediamanager: Bastiaan Stad

Lukkien Keyvisual:
3D Shading/Lighting: Koen Appelo
3D Modelling: Tim Kikkert, Sinan Korkulu
Creative Retoucher: Luuk Leenders

Lukkien Live Action Crew:

Director: Sven Jansen

Producer: Estella Fang
Production Assistant: Lisanne Wiggers
Director of Photography: Jorrit Garretsen
Gaffer: Michiel IJzerman
Bestboy: Koen Koopman

Elektrician: Bryan Tempelaars
Focus Puller: Vincent van Willegen
Photographer: Ron de Wit
Photography Assistant: Wouter Nijskens
Post Supervisor: Jamie Regensburg