Madhya Pradesh (MP) is a central province in India. It is famous for tigers, erotic sculptures, monuments and its rich culture. This commercial portrays these attractions by integrating them with 'Holi', a festival of colours. We see powdered colour and water forming the various tourist attractions of MP amidst the celebration of holi in extreme slow motion.

Holi is a festival of colors that marks the beginning of spring. The participants throw colored powder at each other to celebrate creation and renewal. In the commercial the powder is used to shape famous landmarks, and these shapes where from the early beginning decided to be done using visual effects, as there would be impossible to create these 100% in camera on location.

The visual effects company, was introduced to the idea as early as in November 2012 and was therefore early on involved in the planning and pre-production of this commercial. This gave them a good foundation for the following post-production work.

In January, the VFX Supervisor traveled to India to be a part of the shoot. On set there were many challenges considering the powder. It became a very important task to consider whether the material was good enough to accomplish the digital-formations later on.

There is five different formations which had to be re-created digitally; the tiger, Khajuraho, Jahaz Mahal, Sanchi Stupa and Lord Shiva. On-set we had physical powder and colored water which were thrown at the actors, and the most important task to capture in camera was the interaction between the powder/water and the actors, and the digital formations were added on top. Furthermore, the VFX supervisor supported the director on-set to make sure the powder had the preferred interaction with the actors, so the visual effects could be made on the best basis.

HDRI light references were also captured on set to be able to re-create the lighting and reflections on the powder and water digitally.

The visual effects company produced conceptual drawings for all the formations early on. This way the client and the director got an impression of how the final result would look like before Storm starting the heavy time consuming CG simulations.

The visual effects team involved 12 artists, including conceptual drawers, modelers, animators, effects TD’s, compositors and the VFX supervisor, and from the date the offline were handed over the VFX work lasted for 5 weeks.

One of the biggest challenges was to face the slow motion. All the shots were captured in a speed ranging from 1500FPS up to 2300FPS, and most of the shots were speed-ramped in the offline. Since there is extremely hard to simulate a ramp, the shots had to be simulated on the slowest speed, and then being re-ramped in compositing. One example is the Jahaz Mahal shot, which duration is 239 frames, and the CG simulations where done over 1000 frames to be able to deal with the ramp. Houdini was used as the main software for all the simulations.

While most of the formations were simulated in CG, some parts were added using elements shot towards black on location. This was especially used for the long red water trail on the Sanchi Stupa shot, as a supplement to the CG creations of the gate and temple.