What do you get when you cross a leading oral health brand with the biggest TV event of the summer? For Crest and Discovery Channel, the answer is one rather unusual trip to the dentist, Shark Week style. 2C Creative helped deliver this clever, new brand integration in which a great white shark gets a seat in the dentist’s chair for an unforgettable CG-fueled teeth cleaning.

As long-time collaborators with a rich history of producing innovative brand integrations, we were tapped by Discovery to give life to a concept written and conceived by Michael Eisenbaum, Vice President, Branded Entertainment at Discovery Channel and Science Channel. The idea involved putting Shark Week and Crest together in a humorous, unique and attention grabbing custom vignette. Our leaned into a powerful combo of live action and CG, transporting a shark into a very “human” scenario to which we all can relate.

From the beginning, a key consideration was what the shark would look like. It was essential that this appear as realistic as possible (even though the scenario is impossible in reality). With the project requiring such a high level of CG and real-life integration, it was hard to visualize the finished product, so everyone needed to trust the arduous process and watch it slowly come together. That required a significant leap of faith that the 2C team would eventually get there.

The intensive, effects-driven effort involved carefully shooting the dentist office scenes using a shark stand-in wearing a green suit and shark helmet, providing reference for the hygienist giving the cleaning.

The live-action shoot had to be sensitive to our render-intensive Cinema 4D for modeling, animating, texturing and lighting, as well as the roto and composite work that would happen later in post. The integration of the shark into the scene was a slow, deliberate process over a month involving some 40 hours of rendering for the final composited 10 shots.

Television’s longest running must-see TV event is filled with all things sharks! Shark Week 2018 – the 30th installment of the annual franchise – kicked off Sunday, July 22, with eight days of shark-centric specials.