Dunlop

The similarities between tyre tread and a finger print get a closer look in this Dunlop commercial from BBH and Knucklehead Daniel Barber. The human fingers’ sensitivity to touch, temperature, texture and pressure is referred to in a series of stunning abstract macro shots.

Shot in macro, we see a finger press into an ink pad, lift up and go to make it’s mark on a plain white sheet. What’s left behind is not the print you’d expect, but something that resembles a tyre’s tread.

One of the shots in the script was the close up of a water strider. As it couldn’t be filmed, Finish’s 3D team created a photo-real, fully rigged water strider from scratch using reference photos.

As the shots were going to be macro, extra detail was essential in the modelling stages. Water striders move quickly across the water surface, so Finish gave the editor a series of test renders at various angles at very slow motion that could then be played with in the edit. Once this was decided on, further lighting and animation at the chosen angles was worked on.