To make the water character true-to-life, the team motion-captured a human athlete. Then data from the motion capturing told the water rig when to turn its nozzles on and off, using a series of 2,048 switches. Flash-lighting illuminated and ‘suspended’ the water droplets in mid air. The bottle, which is part of the actual rig, is seen both at the start and the end of the film.

View all the winning work from The Annual 2018 here. 

Entrant/Production Company: UNIT9. Brand: Gatorade. Ad Agency: TBWA\Chiat Day. For UNIT9: Director: Cole Paviour. Executive Producer: Adam Dolman. Producer: Holly Restieaux. DoP/Technical Supervisor: James Medcraft. Pre-Production Assistant: Maisie Thomas. Editor: Alex Burt. Production Manager: Sandy Liddle. Creative: Yifei Chai. Production Assistant: Eleri Evans. 3D Effects Animator: Will Bentley. 1st AC: Tom Reid. 1st AD: Rob Thorpe. Gaffer: Onkar Narrang. Motion Control Mr Moco, Ian Menzies, Nigel Permane. Rigger: Pat Daly. DIT: Matt Oaten. Video Playback: Andrew Spindle. Composer / Sound Design: Chris Banks. Production Runner: Joe Youens. For TBWA\Chiat Day: Chief Creative Officer: Renato Fernandez. Global Creative Director: Doug Menezes. Associate Creative Director: Bruno Acanfora. Executive Producer: Guia Lacomin. Associate Producer: Kathleen Ackel. 3D Water Matrix Creation: Machine Shop Special Projects. SFX Supervisor: Paul Mann. Software Programmer: Will Gallia