VARNIKA: a skincare launch film
A 20-second launch film for VARNIKA, a skincare line we designed and built end to end in 3D: a rose serum, a night cream and one continuous shot.
The hard part
Glass, petals and a camera that never cuts. The bottle is modelled to the millimetre with 2.6 mm walls, and every petal is real cloth, so the impact is solved as physics, not faked in the edit.
Measured
- Length
- 20 seconds, 9:16
- Products
- 30 ml dropper serum, 50 g night cream
- Packaging
- Modelled by code, to the millimetre
- Petals
- Real cloth simulation
- Camera
- One continuous move, no cuts
- Ad set
- Five 4:5 stills
How we built it
From a blank file to the final cut, in 6 stages.
An early storyboard: the film as beats, drawn before any final render. 1Research and story
We studied the beauty films that set the bar, and the Indian skincare market this line is made for. Then we wrote the 20 seconds as beats and drew them as a storyboard, before modelling a thing.
The serum bottle as wireframe, as clay, and finished. 2Packaging by code
The bottle and the jar are modelled from a script in Blender, to exact millimetre dimensions: a 30 ml dropper with 2.6 mm glass walls and a ribbed collar, and a 50 g stone-look jar. The labels are set in Didot and Avenir. Change a number and the bottle changes with it.
Dark tests first, then the white studio the film lives in. 3Look-dev
We lit it dark first: chiaroscuro tests, the glass glowing out of black. Then we tried a white, high-key studio, and that was the one chosen. Soft light, white stone, pink petals.
The physics pass in clay: petals as cloth, before any material. 4Physics
The petals are a real cloth simulation. When the serum lands, an invisible collider gives the impact its burst and flicks them off the edge of the stone. The drops are scripted, with a small bounce and a damped rock as each piece settles.
Frames from the one continuous shot. 5Animation and camera
One camera path, no cuts. The jar drops beside the serum, the dropper unscrews and lifts out, the lid spins off and flips out of frame to reveal the cream, both bases turn like turntables, and the camera pulls back through a rain of petals.
The five 4:5 ad stills. 6Stills and the ad set
The same scene gives the launch its stills: five 4:5 ads for the hero, the serum, the night cream, the ingredients and the ritual. The music is a licensed track, cut to the drop.
The making-of
Watch it come together.
VARNIKA is a skincare line we designed and built end to end in 3D: a 30 ml glass dropper serum (Rose 2% · Niacinamide 10%) and a 50 g rose night cream in a stone-look jar.
The film runs 20 seconds, in 9:16 for Reels. The serum drops onto a white stone base and the impact flicks rose petals off the edge. The jar lands beside it. The dropper unscrews and lifts out, the lid spins off and flips out of frame to show the cream, both bases turn like turntables, and the camera pulls back through a rain of petals.
Nothing here was shot on a set. The packaging is modelled by code to exact dimensions, the labels are set in Didot and Avenir, and the petals are real cloth. The same scene gave us five ad stills, and the models are ready for the next launch.
More of the hard parts.
All work
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