SONOS Case Study | My Site 1

SONOS - Case Study

Credits

3D Designers & Animators:
Enrique Santa Maria & Andrew Han
Sound Designer: Kelly Warner
After Effects Editor: Enrique Santa Maria

Model - Courtesy of FUTURE DELUXE

SONOS ERA 100

For this project, we were tasked with creating a captivating product launch campaign (:10 - :15 sec) for SONOS that showcases the power, clarity, and emotional impact of sound.

Brief: This campaign should demonstrate your ability to creatively visualize sound in a way that feels cinematic, immersive, and emotionally resonant. Turning invisible energy into a stunning visual narrative.

Produce a launch film that doesn't show the product but makes the audience feel the sound. Your piece should merge technical storytelling with sensory driven visuals portraying the speaker as more than a device; it's an experience.

Tools

Houdini
Redshift
After Effects
Nuke

Year

2025

Role

Design
Animation
Editor

LKDEV EXPLORATION

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BEHIND THE DESIGN AND ANIMATION

Our design and animation approach centered on transforming sound into a cinematic visual language. Dynamic Ripples became the physical expression of audio, expanding and pulsing to capture the clarity and power of SONOS.

Color served as our emotional driver, shifting and blooming with the music to show how vibrant and alive sound can make us feel. By combining fluid motion, evolving colors, and ripple-driven energy, our piece creates a sensory narrative that lets the audience feel the music rather than simply observe it, turning invisible sound into an immersive, expressive experience.

HERO SHOTS

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CREATING OUR HERO SHOTS

An additional deliverable for the campaign was a set of four 4x5 hero stills designed for marketing. Each image was created at 4K resolution for high-quality print and paired with the SONOS logo for brand clarity.

Using our ripple-and-color concept as the foundation, we crafted stills that captured the same energy, emotion, and visual intensity as in the final animation. These four images represent the final selections chosen to serve as our hero stills.

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INSPIRATION

Above, you can see some of the reference we pulled and drew inspiration from. We focused on vibrant, saturated colors and dynamic, powerful lighting techniques, using shadows as tools to strengthen both the composition and the overall visuals.

Initially, we referenced a more monochrome, luxurious style, but as the project progressed, this concept, as shown in this case study, proved to offer a stronger visual language and became the direction we chose to pursue.

INSPIRATION REFERENCE CREDITS: @futuredeluxe, Steven Dvornik (@render.bug), @diss_embargo, @omerhirsch.art

CHOSEN CONCEPT - HEART OF THE ROOM

This concept envisions each ripple and pulse as bringing the environment to life. Color, particles, and morphing rippled cloth-like movements respond to every sound and beat, filling the space with energy and vibrance.

The music becomes the heartbeat of the scene, the central force that awakens the environment, breathing rhythm and life into every element.

SOMETHING FELT MISSING...

After our first full pass of lighting and animation, we still felt that something was missing.

Our initial monochrome aesthetic conveyed luxury and a high-quality feel but lacked the power, vibrancy, and emotion that music evokes, which is the core of the brief: visualizing sound through the SONOS speaker. To address this, we incorporated dynamic colors to amplify the feelings music inspires and showcase the speaker’s power.

In addition to the overall piece feeling like something was missing, the few product shots felt lackluster. The VDB morph made the speaker feel underrepresented, almost like a gray model instead of the intended white.

To address this, I added color to match the rest of the piece and completely reworked these scenes, elevating the product shots to the quality the client expects.

FINAL PASS VS. FIRST PASS

CREATING THE VDB MORPH

Here you can see how I built the VDB morph that I ultimately used in my final animation. I started by watching Nick Medukha's "VDB Morph" tutorial and built on it from there. It was a great starting point, but I wanted my version to be different and incorporate multiple layers of morphing, not just one like in his demo.

After many tests and failed attempts, I was able to create and art-direct the simulation to meet my vision, using temperature to drive the simulation and color to drive the texture.

CREATING THE VELLUM RIPPLE

To create the Vellum ripple, I first designed the initial path for the seams and the base to symbolize the speaker’s presence. I used Nick Medukha's "Vellum Constraint Flow" tutorial as a starting point, learned some VEX, and experimented with bend and stretch stiffness until I achieved the cloth simulation I was aiming for.

These were the two ripple techniques I ultimately used, but I also explored creating ripples through displacement. Diving deeper into the technical side of Houdini and learning so much about ripples was incredibly rewarding.

Nick's tutorials are amazing, but I especially enjoyed experimenting on my own and putting my own twist on things, particularly with the VDB morph. I’m excited to keep exploring, experimenting, and learning even more.

PROJECT TAKEAWAYS

Up until this point I’ve never had so much fun on a project. I learned a great deal and am glad I chose to dive deeper into Houdini for this work. It wasn’t always smooth sailing, but the project gave me the opportunity to further develop my Houdini skills.

I also learned a great deal from my creative director’s feedback, thinking more deeply about the client’s needs, and adjusting my approach to meet those needs on a project of this level.

SPECIAL THANKS

A huge thanks to FUTURE DELUXE for proving the assets, creating this brief, and also a special thanks to Martin Cusano and Ant Baena for taking the time to meet with us and critique us on our finished project.

WORK

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