▲ Hankook Tire & Technology, Electrify Your Driving Emotion
Visual effects (VFX) and content company Dexter Studios recently worked with its subsidiaries Dexter Krema, LiveTone, and Takeaway to produce an advertisement for Hankook Tire & Technology (hereinafter referred to as “Hankook Tire”), a leading global tire company. Industry and market stakeholders are taking notice of how Dexter Studios is winning contracts for projects on a global scale, and how then it works with its subsidiaries to ensure mutual growth.
Dexter Studios announced on May 2 that it produced the “Hankook Tire X Formula E, Electrify Your Driving Emotion” video for Hankook Tire in collaboration with Dexter Krema, Dexter Studios’ comprehensive advertising subsidiary. Hankook Tire is an official sponsor of the “ABB FIA Formula E World Championship” (season 9), an electric car racing competition hosted by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The TV commercial produced by Dexter Studios was released for the first time yesterday as part of Hankook Tire’s global advertisement campaign.
The video highlighted the unique characteristics of Formula E, a global racing competition with circuits built in city centers. Dexter Studios focused on the grooves of tires fitted to Formula E machines fighting fiercely on the circuit, and created a sequence that blends into cars driving along in the city. The entire video means that Hankook Tire’s dedicated electric vehicle tire, “iON,” provides the best technology both on and off the circuit for all cars, including electric vehicles. In particular, recreating a tense racing situation was a great tool showcasing Hankook Tire’s technological prowess, as evidenced in its performance in Formula E races.
Supervisor Seo Byeong-cheol at Dexter Studios, who oversaw visual effects (VFX) technology, said, “Unlike feature films or TV series, getting the details right for every second is crucial in commercials, since you only have about 30 seconds to deliver whatever message you’re hoping to get across. We focused on visualizing Hankook Tire’s unique identity, which were superior racing performance, relentless innovation, driving emotion, and technological prowess.”
Seo added, “We used visual assets for all components such as buildings, trees, circuits, cars, soil, bridges, and rendered realistic scenes by linking, compositing, lighting, and animating objects we needed. Ultimately, we were able to do some high-precision tire modeling using 3D scanning technology to deliver a genuinely realistic look for the tires.” He explained further, “Then, we used our ‘Lighting and Illumination’ technology, a piece of technology that detects changes in light source and light, to for more natural-looking tires with fine details added to them. In the final stages, our DI headquarters took charge of correcting the colors and added a few finishing touches.”
Hankook Tire & Technology Director Kwon Hyeok-jin said, “Before the project started, we visited both Dexter Krema and Dexter Studios for our due diligence, and went through a thorough verification process to directly check the content production planning capabilities and video technology of both companies. The partnership ended up being almost a 3-way arrangement, but we got the results were looking for.” Kwon added, “We will continue to pay close attention to producing various content that can highlight our unique strengths.”
Dexter Krema CEO Son Dong-jin also mentioned, “This advertisement was a global campaign targeting consumers around the world beyond Korea, and it was a massive project carried out in close cooperation with Hankook Tire & Technology. We commissioned Dexter Studios, which is our parent company and the best VFX producer in Asia, to do the VFX, and the decision helped significantly improve the quality of our final product.”
Dexter Studios’ Co-CEOs Kim Wook and Kang Jong-ik said, “Our company has produced various video content technologies primarily for feature films, but also for TV series, games, and advertisements. Based on our experiences working in Korea, China, Japan, the United States, and Russia, we’re looking forward to expanding into more overseas markets and becoming much more active in the global market.
