Balenciaga’s Afterworld Named Most Innovative at APA IDEAS Awards

IDEAS Awards recognise the best and most innovative projects created by Advertising Producers Association (APA) members in immersive (VR and AR), interactive, experiential technologies and virtual production. The winners were announced at APA’s Future of Advertising event on 19th April 2022. 

By bringing our end-to-end virtual production services together under the DNEG Virtual Production banner, our new division is able to partner with clients across the entire creative journey of the project, providing:

Content creation – bespoke real-time content creation and associated services, including but not limited to concept art, previs, techvis, stuntvis, final asset creation (2D, 2.5D, 3D), in-camera VFX, and interactive lighting.

Content management – seamless management of content throughout every stage of the virtual production pipeline, and into post-production and VFX, including asset management, quality control of multi-vendor ingestion and packaging processes, performance and optimisation, and stage tooling.

On-set expertise – supervision, operational and technical on-set services, working hand-in-hand with clients to define the best shoot methodologies for each project. On-set services include tracking, motion capture, VR scouting, Vcam, Simulcam, virtual cinematography and a range of LED stage solutions.

Integration – seamless integration of real-time services with DNEG’s Academy Award-winning VFX services, allowing continuity of production, security, confidentiality, budgeting flexibility, and ease of contracting with a single partner.

With Fashion Weeks around the world forced online during the pandemic, Balenciaga imagined the next generation of virtual catwalk shows in video game Afterworld. Players were invited on an interactive journey based on “mythological pasts and projected futures”, exploring the Fall 2021 collection. Garments were modelled by 50 volumetric characters created with the Polymotion Stage, in the largest and most innovative volumetric project ever undertaken.

Afterworld is a collaboration between Balenciaga, creative consultant Substance & Inhalt, volumetric video studio Dimension and game developer Streamline using Unreal Engine. Read more in the Balenciaga Afterworld case study.