Watch: How This Gatorade Ad Brought Water to Life Without a Drop of CGI

Sometimes a video comes along that reminds you of how infinitely creative human beings can be. The G Active ad for Gatorade is one of them. It has been making its rounds all over the interwebz, but just in case you've been on a tech fast for the last month, this video features what is essentially a human made of water droplets doing a bunch of athletic stuff, like running, jumping, and kicking a heavy bag. Sounds cool, right? The coolest thing, though, is that it was all done without CGI. Check out the ad below, and then continue on to find out how it was done.

Now, who is the genius (or geniuses) behind this incredible ad? UK-based production company Unit9 called upon DP James Medcraft to lens this thing, as well as come up with an innovative way to bring this water-droplet athlete to life.

Working with Unit9, Machine Shop, ARRI Rental, and Mark Roberts Motion Control, the team came up with the idea to build a 3D liquid printer that was able to print life-size models from motion capture data. This alone would be pretty cool—seeing a sheet of water in the shape of a human running in place—but in the words of Sarah Silverman, "That's been done."

So, the team took it a step further and captured the 3D liquid prints using high-speed sync flash with the ARRI Alexa 65 and Milo Motion control, something Medcraft says is a "technical world first." The main problem the team had to figure out was how to expose and photograph the water droplets precisely enough to create a stop motion animation, an extremely complex process that is detailed in the behind-the-scenes video below.

"In 5 shoot days and 11 days in the studio we created a life-sized animated human, created entirely from liquid that moves and interacts with physical space like a real human."

Needless to say, this video is absolutely incredible and unlike anything we've seen before. The design of the "Rain Rig," the unique use of the 3D liquid printer, and the innovative process of animating it all reminds us of just how far we can take our medium if we have the creativity and drive to do it.

Source: Unit9