Mill+ directors Dael Oates & Stephen Beck (Left Shoe Lost) team with Mill CD/3D supervisor Yongchan Kim to conjure a photoreal world of faux felt marionettes and deliver an important personal health message for Corcept Therapeutics.

Yongchan Kim: “As soon as we received the creative from Link 9, we fell in love with the concept. The challenge was finding the right balance for how the marionette string should behave, as it represents the core aspect of the concept — cortisol. We had to go back and forth a bit to find the perfect balance for how ‘puppeteered’ our hero character needed to be while animating her.

“We also paid extra attention to the details, not just on the characters but also on the props and environment. Since it was supposed to look like a stop-motion set, we went through multiple rounds of execution, finding the right amount of bevel, texture, and material to ensure everything fit seamlessly into the world we created.”
 
 

 
Client: Corcept Therapeutics

Agency: Link 9
Creatives: Olivia Browne, Bona Jeong Lopez
Producer: Susan Lekanides

Production: Mill+
Directors: Dael Oates, Stephen Beck (Left Shoe Lost)

Animation/VFX: The Mill
CD/3D Supervisor: Yongchan Kim
Executive Producers: Mandy Harris, Matthew Loranger
Senior Producer: Katherine Miccio
Associate Producer: Lauryn Huling-Jackson
Lighting Supervisor: Arman Matin
Animation Lead: Navdeep Singh
Lead Compositor: Yoon Sun Bae, Rajesh Kaushik
Senior Rigger: Daishi Takishima
Asset Supervisor: James Chan
Concept Artist: Roger Hom
FX Lead: Incheol Jeong
FX Supervisor: David Barosin
BGLR Producer: Alankit Thapa
BGLR Production Coordinator: Rahul Sasidharan, Rhushikesh Patil
DFX Supervisor: Surendar Selvam
BGLR Asset Supervisor: Sandeep V S
BGLR Asset Lead: Jayadeep Chandran
BGLR Asset Artist: Shahid Hussain, Shobith Nair, Sunku Ayusha, Joydip Sarkar, Poonam Raturi, Mohit Kattar, Rajvaibhav Suryakant Poyekar, Tanmay Mayra, Sanju Sankar, Tom George, Manukuru Manikanteswara, Nishika Bansal, Piyush Sharma, Akash Deodhum Humne, Akhil Panicker, Abhi Basu, Abhi Basu, Boricha Mohit Narshibhai, Jigna Chandulal Saparia, Sandeep Kumar Yadav, Akshay Upendra Kanakia, Chauhan Yash
BGLR Rigging Lead: Sandeepkumar Madival
BGLR Rigging Artist: Vivekkumar Shobhnath Pal
BGLR Creature Supervisor: Sukanta Chakraborty
BGLR Animation Lead Artist: Sandeep Kumar Goje
BGLR Animation Artist: Raman Bhatia, Jithin K, Subharanjan Jena, Santosh Thippeswamy
BGLR FX Lead Artist: Ashfaque Ahmad
BGLR FX Artist: Jayasri S, Sooraj A S, Aliasgar Barodawala, Rajesh Prakashrao Mahakalkar, V Dilip Kumar Reddy
BGLR Lighting Lead: Sweekar Revankar
BGLR Lighting Artist: Yogesh Ashok Sail, Nilangshu Majumdar, Surya Chetan, Manjunatha Chandrashekar, Vishwajeet Nandagawle
BGLR Comp Supervisor: Nanda P V
BGLR Comp Lead: Amresh Kumar
BGLR Comp Artist: Aasheesh Singh, Chilka Souji, Sujindran Manoharan, Chandan Kamalakar Shete, Aman Kumar Singh
BGLR Scheduler: Manoj Shivam, Prasad Kale

Color: The Mill
Colorist: Ashley Ayarza Woods
EP: Alexandra Lubrano
Producer: Colleen Valentino
Assist: Amonnie Nicolas, Nick Yelesin
Production Coordinator: Joanee Lee

Edit: The Mill
Editor: Leanne Belgiorno