Carrera Black Edition to the public, Storz & Escherich felt like a natural fit.
"We believe in good, hard work,” begins Storz. “We combine this with our passion for the craft and creativity of CG to deliver truly great work. Using this approach, our style frames and ideas for the execution of the commercial successfully convinced Porsche to go with our team."
According to Storz, the commercial – titled ‘Timeless Black’ – is inspired by the immutable grace of a midnight-black Porsche 911. “This inspired us to create a visual mix of abstraction and materialization – all in complete compositional harmony with a dramatic, epic edge,” says Storz. “It all starts with an explosion of a drop of black ink, which transforms into that magical piece of iconic design: the black Porsche 911."
As witnessed in the video, the results are spellbinding: the syrupy liquid unfurls and expands, gradually unearthing the iconic outline of the Carrera Black Edition. It's not a traditional car commercial, but then again, a Porsche isn't a common ride. The ad perfectly suits the brilliance of the subject: in both cases, it's nearly impossible to look away.
Storz & Escherich’s idea held true from concept to execution with little modification. However, actually creating the effects required a great deal of experimentation and back and forth between various groups in the team, who used both real footage and CG augmentation to achieve the final effect.
Much of the footage of the black ink pulsing through the water was shot on set and then returned to the studio, where Storz & Escherich's artists could build upon the filmed results with simulated liquid animation.
"We created a complex mask for every shot of ink, and layered as many shots as possible to achieve a variety exiting movements,” explains Storz. “We then added CG elements to the real footage of the car and combined them with animated car parts and ink shots.