Burberry chooses Hotspring for Minecraft collaboration

Burberry’s collaboration with Minecraft has piqued the interest of many an internet-goer. This cross-reality project sees the British luxury fashion house joining forces with a game that’s taken the world by storm. Launched earlier this year, you can now buy Minecraft-inspired Burberry clothing in real life and in the cubic digital world itself. Burberry x Minecraft is next-generation, cross-platform fashion. And was realized with the help of Hotspring’s specialized pool of global talent.

Real-life meets virtual environment

We’re used to seeing models on catwalks and runways, surrounded by fashionistas, influencers, and bloggers. But with the growing adoption of Web3, that previously must-be-in-person experience has crept online. For Burberry x Minecraft, it extends even further with the inclusion of real-life models in a virtual world.

Burberry approached Hotspring to composite live-action talent into the signature digital spaces built by Minecraft and the fashion brand – juxtaposing the real models against the artificiality of the Minecraft world. There were 32 shots in all and, to meet the constrained schedule, they needed to be delivered in just two and a half weeks.

Hotspring sent a VFX supervisor to the shoot to take measurements, scan the space, and check the camera rig – gathering vital data to ensure a smooth and efficient post production process.

Burberry created incredible assets with the team at Minecraft – from podiums for catalog shots to fully immersive environments based on the four primal elements of earth, air, fire, and water. Once Hotspring received the CG environments from Burberry, the team explored and selected shots – positioning virtual cameras to ensure that the models would match their environments once placed into them. 

Those models were filmed on treadmills against studio green screens to give motion to their work. Thanks to the data captured during Hotspring’s studio visit the green screen portions were easily removed, allowing for the models to be composited into their individual worlds.

A network of trusted artists

Two distributed teams of Hotspring artists worked on the project while Executive Producer, Gemma Humphries, oversaw the process, acting as a lynchpin between the artists and the Burberry team. By using separate teams, Hotspring was able to apportion sections of work to increase efficiency. One group of artists took care of clean-up and rotoscoping – removing models from their original backgrounds – while the second group focused on compositing.

“It’s vital to have that trust between us and the client,” Gemma said. “That’s why we go to great lengths to build artist teams around our regular clients so they know the leads, they have that rapport, and the teams trust each other to deliver the best possible results on time. And of course, our Creative Director, Nico Cotta, is always there to offer support to the wider team.”

Seamless collaboration

With two and a half weeks to turn around all deliverables, it was crucial to establish a smooth and efficient review process. By using the Hotspring platform as the central hub for communication and project management the teams were able to keep everything on track. It also allowed for open lines of communication between the teams from both Hotspring and Burberry. From artists to producers and the end client, this workflow ensured full visibility of completed assets. Hotspring delivered the project in two halves: a teaser trailer with the first batch of deliverables followed by a second batch. This gave stakeholders at Burberry the opportunity to send feedback on the first renders while the artist teams were working on the second set.

The Burberry x Minecraft collaboration has been an instant hit, culminating in Burberry winning the Metaverse World and Gaming Experience category at the Fashion Awards. As more and more brands seek to enter these digital spaces, establishing those relationships with external VFX studios and artist teams will be crucial to realizing those ambitious projects in development.