Millions of Germs will Die (thanks to Domestos!)

27th Jan 2005: London agency Lowe has created a new TV campaign for the Domestos brand including Thickest Ever Domestos and Domestos Bleach Cleaning Spray. The campaign was devised by Lowe creatives Jason Fretwell and Greg Milbourne. The commercials which are CG animation were directed by Passion Pictures’ Russell Brooke.

The commercials feature a collection of revolting germs voiced by three of America’s top character actors, who give these characters an authentic sense of danger and menace. The germs boast about the history of their turf (a toilet bowl, a corner of a shower etc) and make it clear that they won’t be moving without a fight. But not even germs as tough as these can stand up to the killing power of the Domestos products.

In the first commercial “Melting” the animated germ is sitting in a filthy looking place. He addresses the camera and in a monologue he reminisces about the past, “We were millions strong, and our turf stretched from the waterfront down in the dark bowl to up under the big rim.” We realise with horror that the germ is talking about a toilet bowl. But as we hear the germ talk about havoc they routinely cause, we notice that the fizzing pool of Domestos he’s sitting in is gradually dissolving the germ away. “It ain’t over. I’m not ready to check out yet”, the germ cries as he disappears with a dying gasp. “Millions of germs will die”, says the voice over at the end of the spot as a large bottle of Thickest Ever Domestos is slammed down.

How the commercial was made
Passion Pictures’ visual effects supervisor Chris Knott says, “The germ characters were designed by illustrator and comic book artist Richard Dolan (with additional designs for “Wipeout” by Mike Koeltsch). The first task for Passion’s CG animators was to translate Dolan’s 2D drawings into 3D CG models using Lightwave and to rig these models both for lip synch and for the other acting movements the germs would have to make in the film. Stuart Hall started tests for the lighting for the environments and the textures on the germs early in the process so as to establish how the germs would eventually look when all the animation was completed. Some of the effects were inspired by nature - pictures of insects and slugs were used to provide guides for the germ’s skin textures.

“The commercial uses live action FX to simulate spitting, dribbling, fizzing, bubbling and steaming. These effects are carefully composited with the CG effect for an overall seamless picture.”

“This campaign is the first that Passion Pictures has done using XSI software. Passion’s CG department made the switch to XSI (from Lightwave) in order to be able to take advantage of the larger talent pool of animators available in London. Working closely with XSI, technical director Mark Wilson wrote displacement plug-ins to dissolve the germ at the end of the spot.”

Producer Cara Speller says, “Work on this campaign has been some of the most creatively and technically challenging that our CG team has ever come up against, right from the hard fought pitch stage last summer. Throughout the production process every element has combined to continually raise the stakes, starting with the A-list voiceovers that were a gift to work with for the team as a whole. We are currently still in production for films 2 and 3, and we’re hoping that the campaign will be as successful for Domestos as it was satisfying to make.”

Russell Brooke - the director
Russell Brooke has been based at Passion Pictures since 2000 and is one of the world’s foremost directors of animation. The charity commercial NSPCC Cartoon directed by Frank Budgen and for which Brooke designed and animated the character won a Gold Lion at the Cannes Advertising Awards as well as BTAA awards and a D&AD Award for Best Animation. He has also directed an award winning campaign for Sony Playstation for TBWA London and commercials for Wotsits, Snapple, Aero, Carphone Warehouse and Nintendo.

XSI
Mental Ray (rendering)
Combustion