Luma creates the future with Telkom NGN

Futuristic apartment with arcade robots and a holographic TV set

Close-up shot of bullet train with fibre-optic cable

Train between the buildings

New city completing transformation with floating billboards

Hospital shot with flying ambulances

Futuristic City with Telkom Tower

According to Paul Meyer (Managing Director at Luma) this is one of the biggest commercials Luma has ever done, he also adds on to say: “It was a great opportunity for Luma to showcase its talent and craft on a challenge of this magnitude.”

The story features Telkom's Next Generation Network (NGN) represented by a fibre-optic cable transforming a featureless landscape information in an advanced technologically-rich city of the future, and turning a classic model steam train carrying its cargo of kids into a futuristic bullet train. This train zooms around on a fibre-optic cable that runs through the empty environment, creating new 'life' in the form of infrastructure wherever it goes. The live action was shot in a green screen studio, and everything else in the commercial was built in CGI (Computer Generated Imagery).

The animators especially enjoyed the exciting process of having to build robots for the arcade game played by the kids in the apartment and how everyone in the studio wishes they had a game like that in the near future.

The buildings had to be built with a futuristic feel to them; it was an intense process that included a lot of research in terms of where the world is going to be visually futuristically. “It was a thrilling and challenging process for us to create this world, we had just over three months from conceptual work to finishing the final composite, and the final picture was delivered in high definition. This shows that given a bit more time, bold visions can be crafted to a higher standard.”

Nono Mofokeng (producer) said: “It was a long process of crafting and recrafting with a few sleepless nights until we got the picture to where it is. All the buildings, robots, the fibre-optic cable, bullet train, stadium, highways and the Telkom Tower have been modelled, textured and created in 3D by the digital artists at Luma.”

Nono continues to say: “The gigantic fibreglass soccerball on top of the Lucas Rand tower in Pretoria was also being built while the commercial was being crafted, and the challenge then was to create a futuristic tower that would look 'in spirit', exactly like the real one in Pretoria.”

The footage was shot in HD (High Definition) with the RED ONE camera and all the footage processed was HD including all the CG elements, the commercial was then rendered and finished in HD. Werner Ziemerink, head of 3D at Luma says more than a terrabyte of storage was used in the process of completing the commercial. This is one of the many commercials we have had to render in HD this year and we definitely see it as a global trend. A few years from now everyone will be shooting and finishing off material in HD.

The commercial is now flighting on all three SABC stations, e.tv and M-Net; it is also screening in cinemas nationwide. We can see the target audience receiving the message as expected, because it is speaking to them directly as it reflects the link between the brand and the consumer needs. The campaign better demonstrates the efficiency and productivity of the fibre-optic cable in exchanging information data and that is what the targeted audience is more concerned about, a quick and efficient internet connection.

“We had a lot of fun on this project and look forward to doing even more ambitious work in the future.” Paul Meyer


About Luma
Luma is a creative company started by and still run by creative people. It was founded in October 2001.

Since then, we have positioned ourselves to be one of the leading creative studios in South Africa, specialising in character animation, visual effects and game development. We create engaging digital content and work on some of the most high-profile TV commercials in the country. At present we are currently busy with an animated TV series called Bun&Bunee. We have also released our very first iPhone game (Marble Blast Mobile) and we are in the development of two more games with titles for the Xbox and PS3 in pre-production.

For more on our studios go to www.luma.co.za