For Sofia

For Unicefs campaign for children trapped in crisis across the world, they have created this unique campaign ad named "#ForSofia".

From first glance, Sofia can easily be mistaken for a real life child, the compositing is hyper real, her movements obviously motion captured to be so realistic.

What was interesting to find out was how Sofia is an amalgram of 500 children currently trapped in crisis right now, this minute. This information adds another level of depth. It makes her more real, no longer is she just a 3D projection, she is a 3D projection reaching out to you with reality, the reality that the 500 faces she is constructed with have probably seen poverty, war, crisis, tragedy, maybe even death. It makes her more tangible, real.

3D animation is a medium that usually lacks tangibility and realism, even when textured hyper real, it can be argued characters still don't actually feel real, they don't have life behind the eyes, because at the end of the day, they are just a hollow 3D character. But Sofia is different. BECAUSE she is modelled from 500 REAL children all with different REAL experiences, there is something behind the eyes and its quite touching and emotional.

All this makes for a powerful piece of advertising, it captures you to listen, and is more powerful than just 1 child talking, we have become desensitised to ads which show emotional children making a plea because there are so many.