cancer council victoria - get the facts on vaping

As the popularity of vaping reaches an alltime high, many people are unaware of the dangers it poses to their health. Cancer Council Victoria aims to educate three core demographics: twenty year olds, thirty year olds and parents.

We created slow-motion digital vape clouds across multiple shots, visually showing the chemicals contained within using words and symbols.

The Process 

1. Look Development
Our process started with look development for the vape clouds. Vape smoke looks and behaves differently to smoke from a fire or a cigarette, due to it being clouds of vapour particles and not actual smoke. We studied images and videos of people vaping to replicate the density and movement of the vapour and then iterating on how this looks once slowed down to super-slow motion. 

2. Tracking and matchmove
The cameras were tracked and the people and vape pens within the shots were matchmoved, so that the CG vapour clouds would originate from the correct place. 

3. Simulation
The look development was rolled out to each of the shots and adjusted to ensure continuity between the shots. The words and chemical symbols were developed as separate simulations that were integrated with the main cloud simulations to create the final elements. 

4. Lighting
Using data captured on set, the CG lighting was setup to replicate the lights present on set, so that the smoke would have the same lighting as the people and objects within the plate. 

5. Compositing
The final step in the process, the compositors adjusted colours of the vapour clouds to give them a slightly green, chemical look and enhance detail within the clouds to give them their final look. 

The team

Client: Cancer Council Victoria
Agency: Gatecrasher
Production by Stirfry

Post Production by Cutting Edge
Editor: Kerry Farrell
Colourist: Kali Bateman
Online: Glenn Cone

VFX by SQUEAK 
Animation Director/VFX Supervisor: Ian Anderson
CG Supervisor/Lead FX Artist: Phil Jackson
Team: Rob Conn, Cam Wright, Leyton Brown, Bruno Ribeiro Profeta, Liam Barnard
VFX Producer: Sarah Taylor
VFX Coordinator: Rylee Bannan