Directed By: Usama Alsharqi
VFX TD: Alaa Alnahlawi of VFXArabia

Executive Producer: Aws Alsharqi

Producer: Reem Emad

Production House: YaraMedia
Dubai Media Incorporation.

This TV spot was the first one to work on, YaraMedia proposed Drstrange style to the client and he was so excited about the idea. I started digging the effect and watching the movie and behind the scene letterly frame by frame I even watched the Master Class "MAKING OF DOCTOR STRANGE" by ALEXIS WAJSBROT, I found alot of good information there that helped me block the effect. Below you can see the first tests that was approved by the client and Alhamdullilah got me the job.

The effect is not that impossible to achieve, it heavily relies on pre planning and a well build model in a way that each segment is in the right place, which you don't get all the time so some of the models delivered to me had to be re topologized "lol it's not even an English word".

​​​​​​​No need to mention that the effect was done in SideFX Houdini where I created three different setups to cover all the scenarios:

Madinat Jumeriah spot considered to be the hardest and most complex among all. No kidding more than a thousand object is animated here, it was kinda show it all spot and if you dont believe it take a look at the nodes flow below this is only for one of the buildings there.

And here is a shot while developing the effect checking timing and harmony.

Since rendering was going to be in 3dsmax using vray all those moving pieces should be exported using Alembic format.
I wrote a small tutorial discussing the scenarios you might face while exporting you can find it here...

I tried my best to keep everything clean and color coded so when I hand the file to the assembly artist he wont get confused.

And here this post comes to an end, I really enjoyed sharing my experience with you guys and I hope you find it useful, and as always thanx for dropping by and see you in another post.

Kindest Regards

Alaa Alnahlawi.