AVELL GAMER – theVinci

For two consecutive years, I had the pleasure of handling the creative direction and execution of the launch videos for Avell’s professional notebook lines (HYB and ION) and gamer lines (Storm Two and Storm X).

For the first video (Storm Two), I spoke with the client during the briefing to understand the audience profile, compare the intention of the current campaign with the previous one, and define a strategy. After studying references and client information, I proposed focusing on an immersion concept and playfully bringing the player into the battlefield.

The main target audience for this type of notebook is FPS game players. Therefore, I created a game scenario with assets from kitbash3D and other purchased models, simulating a segment of first-person gameplay, then revealing that this same gameplay was running on the notebook screen, also showcasing the new design of the Storm line.

All close-ups of the product were made in the same battlefield environment to maintain the themed setting. For the interiors, the idea was to show more playful circuit boards and components, with animations of energy lines running through the boards, to contrast with the other professional line launch video, where I opted for a more realistic scene with real components.

The immersion concept is recalled in the final scene, making a seamless transition between a gamer’s room and a battlefield desk.

The StormX is the update to the Storm Two, targeting the same audience with the same features but featuring a new design and faster performance. Upon getting to know the product, I proposed maintaining a war theme, but with more technology and speed. With this in mind, I proposed the main scene as a jet battle, and the entire video editing features more dynamic and faster camera movements than the Storm Two video.

The video begins with scenes in a dark room with orange lasers passing over the notebook, revealing design details to create suspense. Then, I linked the rear exhausts, which have red LED rings, to the turbines of an F-22 jet, which has straight shapes.

For the jet scene, I had to use a ready-made F-22 model, remodel some low-quality parts, and adapt the colors to match the notebook’s color palette, also adding the “StormX” writing on the wings.

In these scenes, I planned to use cloud simulation with Embergen to have realistic clouds, jet smoke trails, and cloud distortions from the jets’ speed; however, there was no time or budget for this. As a solution, I purchased a VDB cloud pack and manually placed the clouds in the scenes.

The gunfire was simulated with TyFlow, and the explosion was volumetric (VDB) with post-production effects for the shockwave.

The jet dogfight scenes were excellently animated by animator Doug / Agente Laranja, who animated the jets individually and the cameras. He was also responsible for the cameras in the opening close-up scenes of the notebook.

The color orange was defined by marketing as the main branding color for this product. Therefore, in all scenes, the dominant or highlight color is orange. For example, in the jet scenes, instead of creating an orange sunset sky, I proposed a blue sky with low saturation so the orange of the planes, gunfire, and explosions would be the complementary color (standing out by contrast) and also for narrative reasons: I wanted to represent a war scene, so a low-saturation sky was a better choice than a romanticized orange sunset.

The video concludes with a packshot in the shape of an X, next to the StormX logo.