We’ve always hoped sharks don’t watch movies. Mostly because that would mean they were hoarding all the waterproof televisions. But also because JAWS might give the wrong ideas to the anti-people activists in the shark community.
What if one of those activist sharks was in a tank at your local aquarium? Could it break through the glass?
We’d like to think that’s what ARN Radio and Amy Shark were thinking when they came to us asking for help to prank the public.
Our brief was simple: create a realistic 3D shark that would attempt to attack the viewer by smashing the glass of its tank at SeaLife.
Easy enough?
The trick with this project was that people couldn’t notice that the animation was a fake tank until it was too late.
Amy Shark would be there to help distract the potential victims, but it was still vital that they could look at the animation, prior to the shark attack, and believe it was real.
That meant the setup had to be subtle. The shark tank needed to blend in naturally with the surrounding environment and feel like it belonged right there among the other aquariums.
Because if people spotted the prank too early, all we had really made was a slightly suspicious television.
The best way to ensure the victims didn’t figure out there was something fishy about the shark tank was to make sure they weren’t looking at it.
So, we began the animation with empty water. This way, viewers would be drawn to the fish in the bright, colourful, real aquarium opposite the animation, literally turning their backs on the shark tank.
Then came the punch line.
Not that sharks can throw a punch, but you know what we mean.
The shark would suddenly appear and attack the glass, creating the shock moment that made the whole prank work.
The brief called for a realistic 3D shark, so the design and animation had to feel convincing enough to pass at a glance as the real thing.
Getting the shark to crack the glass in a believable and shocking way was a challenge. The size of the shark and the cracking glass had to be realistic and instantly recognisable, but also large enough to effectively surprise the viewer.
The water, lighting and overall tank look also had to sit naturally within the SeaLife environment. It needed to feel like a real wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Or shark in fish’s clothing.
To ensure everything was looking fin-tastic, we repeatedly tested the animation on the screens at SeaLife.
These screens were a lot larger than our computers, so at first our shark was huge. The size of your car kind of huge. Too huge to be instantly recognised as a shark.
So Mr. Shark was shrunk to a more realistic size.
Testing on site also allowed us to alter the water animation to match the other tanks. After darkening the water and changing some of the lighting effects, our tank was blending in perfectly.
Exactly what you want from a prank tank full of fake danger.
It turned out pretty jaws-ome.
Our shark made ARN Radio and Amy Shark very happy. The unfortunate souls who walked into SeaLife that day were not quite as happy.
The final result was a realistic, well-timed visual prank that blended seamlessly into the aquarium environment, right up until the moment it absolutely did not.
Which, for a shark attack fake-out, is really the dream.
