Project Description

Saero Soju Pop-up Store

I.M STUDIO immersed audiences in a luminescent set of interactive visuals for Saero Soju’s award-winning series of shops across Korea.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of their sugar-free soju, Saero, Lotte Chilsung Beverage opened the Saero 02-57 Cave pop-up store this September in downtown Seoul, Korea. OOB Company and DAEHAKNAEIL Corp. commissioned I.M STUDIO to create video elements that would immerse spectators in “the Saero Soju worldview,” depicted by magical environments, and luminescent particles.

Art Director In Jeong and team used Notch and Cinema 4D to create all scenes over the production course of a month, creating material for three unique rooms: the “Purifying Room,” the “Deep Cave Room,” and, ultimately, the “Tasting Room,” which included an interactive table equipped with two projectors and a depth camera.

From there, they generated all interactivity by linking Notch and TouchDesigner. Though they had used the HapQ Alpha codec in the past, the creative team encountered issues with stability on this project. So, for the first time, they used the NotchLC Alpha codec. As the team reported, “It’s very stable, and the 10-bit quality makes a big difference.”

Twenty thousand guests visited the store over the seventeen days it was open. Attendees particularly lauded the interactivity, which was also critically acclaimed, winning the Gold Prize for promotion at the Korea Advertising Festival. The team plan to open more pop-up stores in Korea even before the end of the year.

“Because there was so much visual interactivity planned for this project, we used Notch every step of the way. It was easy, fast, and yielded beautiful results!”

In Jeong, Art Director, I.M Studio

Additional press coverage:
Hankyung, Hankook Ilbo, BetaNews.

Credits
Client: Lotte Chilsung Beverage
Agency: OOB Company & DAEHAKNAEIL Corp.
Project Director: Sungkyun Yim
Art Director: In Jeong (I.M STUDIO)
Storyboard: In Jeong
2D & 3D Art: Seunghye Han (I.M STUDIO)
VFX: Bobin Jang (I.M STUDIO)
Interactive Art (NotchVFX): In Jeong

Compositing: In Jeong
Sound & SFX:
omnisound
Technical Director: Kwanjong Kim (a.HASH)
Interactive Tech & System (TouchDesigner): Jounghwan Son, Yuhwa Kim, Jiwon Cheh (a.HASH)
Hardware: tone-sys
DoP: Tim
Edit & DI: Tim & In Jeong