Client
Project Type
A 3D anamorphic billboard built for Tourism Western Australia's Walking on a Dream campaign, running at Pavilion KL, Kuala Lumpur. Against one of the city's busiest screens, a whale shark glides through a dreamlike recreation of Ningaloo Reef — slow, vast, and meditative. The visual does not sell a destination. It transports you to one.
About the project
We partnered with Tourism Western Australia to localise their global Walking on a Dream campaign for Malaysian audiences. The brief was emotional — make people feel the pull of Ningaloo Reef in the middle of Bukit Bintang. We centred the animation around the whale shark, the reef's most iconic and peaceful presence, and built a dreamscape around it: shimmering sunlight, water reflections, ambient underwater motion. Set against the noise of Pavilion KL, the contrast is the campaign. The city disappears. The reef arrives.
Key Visual
High-Detail Texture and Product Breakdown
A whale shark moves through a tranquil, cinematic underwater environment — slow, graceful, filling the frame with the specific calm of something that has no reason to hurry. Sunlight refracts through the water above it. The screen becomes a window into Ningaloo Reef. The visual does not describe the destination. It becomes it.
Details
Fluid Motion and Environmental Realism
Underwater light built to behave like real refracted sunlight — softened, shifted, depth-dependent. Water reflections rendered with environmental precision rather than decorative shimmer. The whale shark's movement calibrated from real marine reference — the specific pace, the relationship between body and water. Scale illusion built for Pavilion KL's screen geometry and its real-world viewing distances.
Process
Design and Animation Process
We began with the campaign's emotional brief — stillness and wonder in a city that offers neither. Reference material locked to actual whale shark behaviour before any animation was built. Underwater atmosphere developed around the quality of light at Ningaloo's depth. Anamorphic perspective calibrated specifically for Pavilion KL. Slow motion confirmed early and held throughout. The visual earns its pace.
Credits
Project Lead: Harvard Yap Hou Fai
Creative Lead: Harvard Yap Hou Fai
3D / VFX Artist: Ilyas bin Sofian
Technical Lead: Ilyas bin Sofian
