Vodafone - Elf & Seek

Vodafone wanted to bring character to their Web3 powered treasure hunt, which had previously ran on a smaller scale and involved collecting their logo in Augmented Reality using a tech stack with 8th Wall for the AR capability in the browser.

My role involved helping to conceptualise and subsequently modelling a series of 3D elves to find and collect. I worked closely with our in-house illustrator Katie. Early concepts were going to be 3D extruded from the 2D designs but after some quick prototyping we ended up creating fully realised elf characters with unique features at all angles.

Using a non-destructive 3D modelling technique called Signed Distance Fields, I was quickly able to produce and iterate on the elves, projecting textures onto the model. The project also required me to onboard another team member into the build who had not previously created characters in 3D.

Each elf was rigged up and animated using blended motion capture data takes.

Each elf had to be around 2mb in order to be suitable for mobile use, including a set of animations for winning, losing and idle.

I was also responsible for the creation of pre-rendered animations for each prize, and how to and social videos. The look was maintained between real time 3D and pre-rendered by using baked lighting.

The campaign in partnership with Smart Media Labs was Vodafone’s most successful Christmas Campaign to date and they hope to continue it every year.

The elves featured heavily in Vodafone stores for Christmas 2023