Viral Spot for Levis by Minivegas and Dynamic Motion Synthesis

Minivegas created a short video for Levis:

minivegas
Levis - Stairs (viral)

The spot does its job well — it’s viral, using a recipe that’s starting to feel a bit repetitive, but still manages to sell jeans:

• a mundane scene from everyday life,
• a consumer-grade camera constantly refocusing every 3 seconds, yet with a mic that picks up baby noises from 300 meters away,
• all in front of an incredible event — yes, really!

I wanted to take this video as an opportunity to introduce you to some pretty impressive software, which, according to Jordi Bares (VFX Supervisor at The Mill) represents the future of 3D animation. No less than that!

Endorphin, from NaturalMotion, is a program that uses Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS). Euphoria, from the same developer, applies DMS to video games.
Characters are animated through behaviors that adapt automatically to the scene — intelligently and realistically, in real time.

For 3D and film (Endorphin), this allows for believable character motion without manually keyframing every movement.
For video games (Euphoria), it means character behavior is calculated live based on player actions — no more pre-rendered animations, just dynamic reactions generated on the fly.

Sounds like a lot of technical words, right? Below are video demos of both programs, as well as a making-of for the Pepsi Max ad created by The Mill using Endorphin:

naturalmotion
Endorphine Presentation

naturalmotion
Euphoria Presentation

The mill
Pepsi Max making of

Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Especially when you replace those blue-and-white plastic dummies with realistic textures! I haven’t found a making-of for the Levis spot, but I doubt any real stuntman volunteered for that role — I’m pretty sure this kind of software was used instead.

3D simulation tools for humans are becoming increasingly common in film and advertising. Whether it’s Endorphin or other crowd and behavior simulation software like Massive, you can’t help but wonder — in 10 years, will actors in big VFX-heavy movies still shoot on real sets? Or will we only have 3D puppets controlled by AI or motion capture? Let’s check back in a few years for the answer ;)