ExxonMobil

Brief

The goal was to create a series of animated kitchen experiments for parents to replicate at home with their children to get them excited about STEM subjects. The experiments were:

1. Rain Clouds: How clouds hold invisible water vapour that turns into rain
2. Colourful Cabbages: How water travels up from the ground and around a plant
3. Ghostly Static: How invisible static electricity has the power to pull and lift light objects

We put on safety goggles and rolled up our lab coat sleeves to capture these experiments in camera.

Process

We spent four weeks figuring out how the experiments would actually work, which involved a lot of trial and error. For Colourful Cabbages we tested countless food colouring brands and types of cabbages until we hit the formula that created a pigment bright enough to capture on film, but also durable enough to maintain its form during production.

Once we landed on how to carry out the experiments we then proceeded to design and build the sets. The brief called for a clean, sophisticated aesthetic. We wanted the viewer to imagine themselves following along in their own kitchen.

We animated lights moving and dimming to convey the passage of time and combined stop motion, time lapse and burst photography to get the shots we needed. After the shoot, we composited, edited and graded all three animations in-house.

View the full series here