Grand and elegant hot air balloons drifting across diverse Australian environs is the visual metaphor in the new brand spot for Natural Gas.

All the balloons were CG creations and were custom-designed to exacting detail by Filmgraphics' director, Jonathan Nyquist, with input from Mike Bain, Fuel's VFX Supervisor on the spot.

"We spent a long time with Jonathan getting the look of the balloons just right, and working on the details like the carbon fibre and stainless steel frames on the baskets," explains Mike.

"As soon as the plates came in Jonathan sat with one of our animators, blocking out the opening fully-CG underwater shot, and laying out the positions of every balloon in the live action shots."

Meanwhile over in 2D, fellow VFX supervisor Sam Cole was setting up the various sky replacements and developing the look of the warm, comforting glows that the balloons take on when they fire their flame jets.

For the trivia buffs, many of these flame elements were sourced from a previous elements shoot staged in the Fuel carpark that featured our resident fire-breather and producer, Felix Crawshaw.