Blog 02 - Skin Formulas

I recently partnered with leading Irish skincare brand Skin Formulas to create a full suite of 3D assets that captured their contemporary, pared-back aesthetic, without the need for a physical shoot.

The Challenge
Skin Formulas was preparing for a full website refresh. They needed high-impact visuals - both stills and video, for web and ecomm use. The assets had to showcase the unboxed products and highlight product textures like creams, serums, and foams.

All visuals needed to be consistent, beautiful, and ready to go in just a few weeks.

The Results
The client was super happy with the results - premium visuals that elevated their website, boosted their content game, and gave them creative freedom -without reshoots or delays.

This is the kind of agility beauty brands need today - and exactly what 3D delivers.

Blog 01 - Botaniq

For this blog I thought it might be fun to break down a recent brand storytelling promo for a natural deodorant, I’ve picked x3 3D shots to look at from the 18/s social spot.

Mood board

First up is my mood board for the animation. I find mood boarding super important to any project, pulling in visual references really helps to set the vibe and tone of what we want to achieve.

For this spot, I was drawing inspiration from brutalist architecture and wondering how I could make it relevant for a natural deodorant, so softening the concrete with coastal grasses seemed like an idea worth exploring.

Also for obvious reasons, there’s a visual metaphor here for the natural deodorant subduing the harshness of concrete.

I live by the beach and people like to stack stones around here, so I thought that was another fun nod to the concept of balance, figuratively and literally.

Opening Shot

Of course I wanted the product to be the hero in the promo, so I built this stepped environment and populated it with coastal grasses. I wanted the lighting to feel fairly mysterious, but not so dark the product was hidden.

Here you can see the wire frame build, a view of the scene, and the final shot.

Stacking Stones

Like I mentioned above, I thought the concept of balance was a great metaphor to include in the visual narrative, and with the coastal grasses being included it was a natural fit. Leveraging the set from the opening shot, as a stage, I modeled these stones and stacked them - it actually took about the same time as it would on a windy beach…

Final shot - Driftwood

I really enjoy the twisted yet smooth qualities of driftwood, through the tumbling ocean waves, any sharp edges are smoothed out and we’re left with a singular object that feels sculptural. I wanted to include this feeling in the final pack shot. In terms of animation, it was a good point to show the full rotation of the bottle for a bit of brand reinforcement.

Jerry’s Final Thoughts

So that was a little insight into the 3D build of the Botaniq Natural Deodorant piece, of course there was a lot more art direction and animation involved, particularly in terms of lighting which I wanted to be balanced but natural-looking throughout. Also I wanted a hint of abstract camera lensing in the spot, which came in the post-production phase.

Struggling with creating engaging video content for your beauty brand? I can help! Let's connect. Cheers, Alex