Five New Zealanders are lost on our roads every week.

The families of these people don’t just lose a loved one, they lose a future with them. The loss they experience is life long.

To communicate the potential lost on our country’s roads, we found five road victims, five children who had died in New Zealand road accidents. Then, with their families’ permission, we did something unique and powerful.

We created five photorealistic portraits of how these children would look if they were alive today.

Beginning with photographs of relatives of the child, and using an FBI database of 30,000 images, a forensic artist created a 2D composite sketch.

A technique used by the FBI for missing persons, but we took it one step further.

Weta Digital used a series of programs to refine the composite sketch to create realistic 3D portrait.

The 3D modeling process begins in a program named Maya.

Finer details were sculpted in a program called Mudbox, before textures were applied to the 3D model in a custom built program called Maury. Next was ‘displacement’ where detail such as hair and skin pours were applied.

Images were then rendered; a subsurface was applied, giving a realistic translucent quality to the skin. At least eight artists in various departments touched each image.

These finished portraits then formed the basis of our outdoor poster campaign, which garnered significant media attention throughout New Zealand.

Living Memories achieved an immediate, national response:

• Within 24hrs our campaign was picked up by New Zealand's most watched breakfast news show, highest circulating newspaper, largest online news portal, and most popular women's magazine.

• Brake received an estimated $1,317,017 worth of free media and PR, delivering and a return on investment of 32:1

• In just 5 days we achieved a reach equal to 1.4 times the New Zealand population.

• Brake received a 750% increase in general enquiries.

• Volunteer registrations during Road Safety Week doubled.

• The month following the launch the saw a 25% drop in road fatalities in New Zealand. (Compared to the same month the previous year)