Health Care in Poland is underfunded. This is especially evident in the case of cancer patients. There is very limited or no access to the new generation of drugs. Several treatment methods, like immune therapy or molecular targeted chemotherapy, are not available in Poland, nor funded by the National Health Fund.

Alivia is an Oncology Foundation that believes that more often than not, in Poland the most important missing factor in the fight against cancer… is money.

In our non-for-profit campaign, we followed the road less traveled. Instead of the cliché route of “emotional blackmail” we chose to empower people, to give them hope and show them that cancer is something you can fight and conquer. With the help of essential resources, cancer can be defeated.

In the spot a piggy bank is fighting with a monstrous cancer-like creature. Thanks to money falling into it, the piggy bank is becoming stronger. After a spectacular fight it defeats the cancer.

Note: What in English is crayfish in Polish is cancer.

Creating this animation was a huge challenge for us, mainly due to the enormous quantities of simulations and particles which comprised the destruction of the set by the characters of the Crayfish and SuperPig. The concept of the characters itself required considerable experience from model-makers. Creating models of both characters took about a month with the use of Zbrush and 3ds max2012. The work was supervised strictly by the project Art Director who focused on the smallest of details. We started our work on the film from the development of a screenplay and then stillomatic. Additionally, we created a layout, i.e. the outline of camera animation together with preliminary animation of characters. At the same time, a schematic set was created, allowing the observation of action already at this stage, planning it, removing errors in the history and correct editing. Another stage was creating the correct set. An important element of this was to reproduce objects as in a real hospital, selecting what was important in the shot and what could be omitted.

Simultaneously, we were trying to develop the atmosphere of the entire picture. Envisioning the character of the animation – an atmosphere of darkness with glowing characters took us over a month and lasted until the end of the project. Having the set in the form of a 3D model as well as characters, we started work on the animation of the characters and simulation of rubble, collapsing walls and ceilings. We created special animation skeletons enabling us to stretch and shrink the characters and their elements. Our animators worked on every detail for over two months to ensure the best possible effect. When the animation of the particular shot was approved, the sequence was handed over to the simulation department which, using 3dmax 2012, Ray Fire and ThinkingParticles, “demolished” the hospital to smithereens.

Then we lit the scenes and rendered them using V-ray. Each scene consisted for a dozen or so stripes, e.g. separate stripe for shadows, for reflections, surface texture. W tried to prepare renders in such a way that the image could be worked on during the composition with maximum productivity. It was important to prepare a suitable team. The development of effects, their components and selection of softs and plugins took over two months. The final composition was performed using the Nuke, After Effects software, with a number of plugins, such as Frischluft or Optical Flares. Thanks to the fact that each shot was composed of several stripes, we had significant influence on the final look of the animation. We could stylise animations and look for an original appearance of the whole thing. The key effect was the use of the FumeFX plugin with which we added smoke and particle effects in order to enhance the image visuals.