WeWork - Director's cut

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WeWork

WeWork is a provider of coworking spaces with hybrid solutions and more than 700 spaces all around the world. The goal for us was to show the custom solutions and flexible, cool workspaces it provides for any need and occasion.

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Stuck in a traditional office lease?

Well, meet John. He’s our super employer, who runs a great business. The first thing to look for is an office space that really stands out. Sometimes the hunt for the right workplace can really turn into a nightmare and you may find yourself spinning for months without a solution.

Don’t be afraid, John. You finally found the right place.

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A unique place.

When the elevator doors open, people are usually surprised by how amazing the Wework offices are. We wanted to display this sense of awe in this animation. The challenge was also to express the warmness of the workplace, so we opted for a hand painted style. Every single object in the room should have felt different and peculiar. We included both open spaces and leisure spaces, in order to identify how unconventional and innovative this place is. We tried very different styles and made several styleframes in order to achieve the best possible look.

We chose to show the entire office from a top view. To do so, we used the styleframes as a base for the 3D. We put so much love to design all the assets in the third dimension! Sometimes we also had to play with perspective in order to match the original view.

We took the opportunity to test how Blender grease pencil worked on it. We drew every single edge to recreate the outline of the objects and then we achieved the rough style of the edges in postproduction.

Some of the original frames were drawn in Procreate, making the most out of the blending modes and the blend tool. When we had to texture all the assets we also decided to try Procreate’s new 3D features. We developed a smart workflow that allowed us to jump between the softwares and to get a fast feedback and a result as close as possbile to the final output.

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Let's chat

Do you have any question? Take a seat and let’s talk about it. We pictured the moment you get the full offer from WeWork. When we were developing our characters, we wanted to show how a real interview could go. John would probably feel nervous about it, but he has nothing to be scared of. Jane will make him an offer he won't refuse.

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Designed for you.

The core scene of the whole video was the office presentation. It was mandatory for us to show an incredible place that is not only filled with “things”, but that can provide a custom and carefree solution.

We designed a customizable and scalable workplace to show how flexible these spaces are.

After exploring different open space environments, we opted to replicate the entire office in 3D. Wanna take a tour of it?

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It's a small room after all.

We literally decorated our small WeWork office with different styles and furniture. We created more than 100 colorful items, including sofas, carpets, ceiling lights, meeting rooms and painted dinosaurs. Everything was modeled and textured on Procreate, then imported and animated on Cinema 4D. The biggest challenge for us was to provide a room that looked like a 2D painting, that could be easily populated for a great turnaround.

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Working at Wework.

No words are needed when you can see everything with your own eyes. It’s not only about the office, it’s about the people. We drew an happy place, where coworkers can chat, have coffe break, schedule meetings, and free donuts. Johns is never going to feel alone, since he’s surrounded by people who share their routine with him.

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A handshake and it’s done.

Ok, we’ve seen it all. John is ready to make up his mind. What’s better than a vigorous handshake to seal the deal? Now it’s time for him to start his business. Where? In the fanciest place in town, here at WeWork.

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Look development

We tested several styles in order to decide how the characters should look like, move and interact. Chill, but professional. Casual but also stylish. It was definitely a fun part of the process, but it was also long and challenging.

We feel we achieved a good balance between characters, colors, shapes and movements, don’t you think?

Credits

Direction: Rocketpanda

Client: Piehole

Creative Director: Riccardo Albertini

Background illustration: Laura Belli
Character illustration: Federica Amico

Traditional animation: Diego Ferreo, Marta Sofia Marzullo, Monica Piardi, Riccardo Pagano, Laura Tomelleri
Animation: Riccardo Albertini, Filippo Martinelli, Andrea Nobis

3D: Filippo Martinelli, Paolo Costa, Riccardo Albertini
Compositing: Riccardo Albertini, Filippo Martinelli, Andrea Nobis