Devanshu Tak. Google Shopping | Diwali Shopping with Dadi | Ad Film↗ (opens in a new tab)

Google Shopping's Diwali film follows Dadi as a festive shopping trip grows into a magical Mela. I worked within a four-person 3D team at Shapeshifter and took primary responsibility for the film's largest and most technically involved sequence: an entire marketplace assembling itself into one towering structure.

I designed the final Mela structure, modelled, textured, and shaded its shops, simulated the fabric elements, and built procedural systems for shoes, clothes, ornaments, and storefronts to fly into place. The work had to feel elaborate and surprising while preserving the warmth, tactility, and comic rhythm of the live-action film.

Director Achowe wanted a Diwali Mela that felt magical but still grounded. The team blended CGI with physical design so the scene retained a tactile, handmade quality. Storyboard artist Isha proposed the shop-stacking idea, with the Mela assembling like a Broadway stage set: awnings unfurling, lights switching on, signs flipping, and flags moving on carefully staggered timing.

Having the CG team on set helped capture the lighting, textures and materials needed to merge live action and CG cleanly. Production design leaned on rustic textures, layered colour and small bits of decor. We avoided over-polished surfaces, kept the timing a little janky on purpose, and let warm string lights, lantern glows and atmospheric fog do the heavy lifting.

The pipeline moved from thumbnails into a 3D animatic for the camera and shop assembly, followed by lit previs and technical planning based on the real camera and lens data. On set, the team scanned shops with Polycam and RealityCapture and collected prop, material, and lighting reference. I used Blender for asset work and Houdini for the layout, procedural animation, simulation, shading, and lighting of the Mela sequence, with Redshift for rendering. The resulting imagery was delivered onward for compositing; I did not composite the final shots.

The assembled Mela contained millions of polygons and a large number of independently moving objects. I built controls in Houdini to manage object visibility and keep the scene workable while directing the timing of individual elements. Procedural motion handled the scale and repetition; hand animation remained available for the moments that needed precise visual emphasis.

Developed over five weeks, the sequence brought structure design, asset production, cloth simulation, procedural animation, look development, lighting, and rendering into one connected build. It demonstrates how a complex visual idea can remain art-directable even when hundreds of elements have to work together.