Hummingbird is a fully-CG 30-second commercial produced for Britvic-owned drinks brand Purdey’s by Framestore Pictures with VFX work from Framestore. Directed by Murray Butler, the commercial takes place in a multi-layered fully-CG rainforest environment created by the teams at Framestore and focuses on several hummingbirds flitting around the forest.

A whole charm of hummingbirds then come together, flocking together in a clearing before eventually revealing a Purdey’s bottle, again built in CG.

The brief from the brand was to create something that used ideas from nature to reflect the natural ingredients of the Purdey’s drink. Using Hummingbirds as the focus and a rich, vibrant rainforest location presented the ideas that the brand wanted to get across and it was Framestore Pictures’ job to bring that to life.

The reality of bringing the advertising agency’s idea to life meant that creating it in full CG really was the only way to completely control the narrative and achieve the look director Murray Butler wanted. The team created an environment from scratch with hundreds of layers to produce a beautiful and vibrant rainforest.

They meticulously crafted and planted up to 1500 feathers onto each CG bird and used a specially-designed feather system dynamically laid them down one on top of the other with precise collisions to mimic a realistic look.

To reflect the brief, the commercial was designed to be reminiscent of a nature documentary so the team referenced nature footage to block the action and movements of the birds.