How Chaos Arena helped Warburtons achieve cinematic scale at half the cost

Summary:

• To celebrate Warburtons’ 150th anniversary, creative teams needed to deliver a massive, cinematic virtual set within a tight commercial timeline and budget.
• VFX studio Fifth Wall deployed Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage to drive a massive LED volume with high-fidelity, real-time virtual environments.
• Remaining entirely within their native Maya and V-Ray pipeline bypassed cumbersome software conversions and enabled seamless, real-time ray-traced reflections on set.
• This virtual production workflow ultimately cut physical set construction costs by 50% while granting the team the flexibility to make live lighting and layout adjustments during the shoot.

To celebrate its 150th anniversary, beloved British bakery brand Warburtons launched a cinematic commercial narrated by the iconic voice of Morgan Freeman. Titled “150 Years in the Baking,” the spot takes viewers on a journey through time, featuring a standout “Mission Crumbtrol” sequence—a playful, 1960s-inspired take on a moon landing control room.

To achieve its polished, cinematic look, creative agency Quite Brilliant and CG/VFX studio Fifth Wall were tasked with building an elaborate virtual set that could blend seamlessly with practical elements. They turned to Chaos to bring the ambitious vision to life.

A mission-critical challenge: Achieving cinematic scale on a commercial budget

Production for the Warburtons commercial faced significant challenges, including a tight timeline and budget. Traditional set-building methods, with their high costs and lengthy construction times, were impractical. The team needed a solution that could deliver a large-scale, high-fidelity virtual environment while remaining financially efficient and adaptable.

"We had a cinematic-scale idea on a commercial timeline,” said the commercial’s producer, Simon Monhemius. “A physical build of that size was never going to be feasible from a cost or time perspective. The challenge was finding a virtual production route that wouldn't force us to compromise on the photorealism the scene demanded."

The technical hurdles were also considerable. The desired workflow needed to seamlessly integrate with Fifth Wall's existing Maya and V-Ray pipeline, a significant pain point with other real-time engines like Unreal Engine, which often require cumbersome and time-consuming shader conversions. The team was looking for a solution that would avoid a "gamey" look and provide photorealistic results, especially for complex elements like real-time ray-traced reflections on a massive 11520 x 2160 resolution virtual production volume.

The solution: A seamless realtime workflow with Chaos Arena and Vantage

To overcome these challenges, Fifth Wall, in partnership with Quite Brilliant, turned to the combined power of Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage. Chaos Vantage served as the real-time rendering engine, allowing the team to work with photorealistic, ray-traced visuals directly from their V-Ray scenes. Chaos Arena extended this capability into a robust virtual production solution, enabling the seamless integration of Vantage's real-time visuals with physical camera tracking and multi-display output for the LED volume. This combination proved decisive, offering a more efficient workflow and superior visual fidelity compared to Unreal Engine.

"The ability to stay within our established Maya and V-Ray pipeline was a massive advantage,” said James Knopp, director of Fifth Wall. “With other real-time engines, you have to jump through hoops to convert everything, but with Vantage, we could export our V-Ray scenes and it just worked. It removed a huge bottleneck for us."

(Note: Vantage is now totally integrated into V-Ray, so it can be used directly within V-Ray without needing to export.)

By treating CGI as part of pre-production, the virtual and practical sets were developed in parallel. Fifth Wall's artists built virtual desks, workstations, and lighting that perfectly matched the practical set pieces, ensuring a flawless transition between the physical and digital worlds. Empowered by Arena, they were able to generate high-quality, real-time reflections that were perfectly synced with live camera movements.

A key to the project's success was the close collaboration with Chaos developers. When technical issues with ray tracing arose, the team was able to work directly with the developers to resolve them. This direct feedback loop also led to the implementation of new features, such as the ability to make live shader adjustments on set, providing an unprecedented level of flexibility.

The result: 50% cost savings and a new level of creative freedom

The use of Arena and Vantage delivered immediate and significant returns. By replacing a traditional physical build, the production team delivered a cinematic-quality set at half the anticipated cost, proving that world-class visuals and financial efficiency can go hand-in-hand. This dramatic 50% cost saving did not come at the expense of creativity; instead, it unlocked a new level of artistic freedom on set.

"Chaos Arena gave us the freedom of scale we needed without the typical costs associated with a large set build," said Monhemius. "We could be ambitious and deliver a high-end, cinematic look for the client while staying within budget."

This financial efficiency was matched by an unprecedented level of creative agility on set. The ability to make critical artistic decisions in real-time, rather than being locked into choices made weeks earlier, transformed production.

"The on-set flexibility was incredible," said Knopp. "Chaos Arena allowed our artists to work creatively on the set right up until the last minute, making adjustments to lighting, layout, and color grade in line with the director’s requirements, right there during the shoot. That’s a level of responsiveness that is simply not possible with traditional methods."

A New Blueprint for Virtual Production

In the end, the "Mission Crumbtrol" scene was a triumph of both creativity and technology. It not only played a crucial role in the commercial's success but also fundamentally changed how Fifth Wall approaches virtual production.

The powerful synergy between Chaos Arena and Vantage—with Vantage providing the core photorealistic, real-time rendering and Arena scaling it into a full-fledged virtual production environment—proved to be a game-changer. The on-set flexibility and dramatic cost savings have made this Chaos solution their go-to for ambitious projects.

The success of the Warburtons ad stands as a powerful example of how the Chaos ecosystem is breaking down the barriers to high-end virtual production, making cinematic-scale storytelling more accessible than ever before.

Want to unlock efficiency and creativity in your virtual productions? Book your Chaos Arena demo now.