The Nest
Elia Group
A playful environment for Elia’s digital laboratory
The Briefing
Elia launched an internal laboratory to generate, test, and bring to life new ideas: The Nest. An appealing video was then essential to present the project internally and attract participants: Elia’s employees who thrive on bringing new ideas to their company.
The story we wanted to tell
Since this digital laboratory didn’t yet exist, we had free rein on how we represent it. We wanted to show the central element of the Nest: people’s ideas. Their journey. How, through the program, they come to life. And with so many vibrant ideas, to even show failures as well as successes.
Fred Vandenbroucke, motion designerThe challenge was to depict a playful environment from scratch; create hype around The Nest from basically nothing.
The creative process
Our starting point was the journey of people’s ideas: how can a single, isolated idea grow up and make it to the real world? To visualise their path, we used spheres as metaphors for ideas. We see the tests they’re going through. The multiple colours they wear represent both their diversity and their evolution.
Postproduction
Motion-wise, we got out of our comfort zone (always good!) by using specific tools for marbles to dig their path, or to parameterize a sphere to roll (naturally) while moving. We developed techniques to mimic real-world physics such as natural movement, gravity and friction. We tried various approaches for lighting to make it look real, with harsh lights and softer ones; we finally found the right balance.
Broadcast
The film was broadcast on internal platforms to motivate employees to join the program. The identity created helped to produce numerous other visuals (thanks to Walking Men), and we still use these assets for related content.
