Disguise powers Schwarzkopf Fresh Light campaign in China

Hair dye is all about the beauty of possibilities, fun, and self-expression. This means that hair care brands, such as Schwarzkopf, must constantly find innovative ways to showcase the excitement of their products, especially with visually-appealing campaigns.

In 2024, Schwarzkopf tasked Shanghai-based video design studio Mushang XR to create a campaign for their Fresh Light hair dyes. The campaign needed to be full of high-quality visuals, rich camera movements, and expressive before and after shots.

Mushang’s aim was to use one virtual production studio for all the filming. This meant they needed reliable technology capable of powering and processing eight different high-definition scenes over just three days. 

Thanks to Disguise, the studio could turn their vision into a colourful, inspiring reality – while saving both time and production costs.

The Challenge

Mushang XR needed a powerful and reliable technology solution that could handle the scale and speed of their video production output in a condensed three day shooting window.

Henry Sha, CEO of Mushang XR, says: “The biggest challenge was how to efficiently and effectively complete multiple shots with high quality within the limited time frame.”

The team had two months to storyboard and prepare their concepts. They therefore needed technology that would allow them to scout for virtual locations and plan shots precisely in advance. Meticulous planning was necessary because the team had only 72-hours on-site to shoot the scenes they needed, which included the before and after shots of the models dyeing their hair. 

Mushang XR intended to film all content in their virtual production studio. This needed hardware that could render backgrounds and effects on site and in real time – specifically, eight different scenes with three models, including cutaways, transitions, and city background scenes. Green screen shooting would not give the same flexibility of camera angles, and would take too much post-production time. 

One additional challenge was finding technology that could integrate seamlessly and reliably with their existing systems, such as Unreal Engine and MRMC robotic arms, to allow for a streamlined workflow.

The Solution and Results

Mushang XR used Disguise technology extensively through the project, from conceptualisation to final product.

The team used Disguise’s leading software, Designer, to visualise their production environment and plan scenes in advance. With Designer, they could swiftly scout locations in virtual environments and find scenes to resemble New York streets at the most suitable settings and angles.

Disguise’s deep integration with MRMC and Unreal Engine also allowed for efficient, streamlined workflows during the filming itself. “The compatibility between Disguise and other systems is excellent”, says Sha. The team could quickly and flexibly adjust assets within Designer during shooting, such as modifying the speed of street scenes.

Meanwhile, Disguise’s RXII hardware, the most powerful GPU on the market, meant the team could reliably render high-quality scenes and display content within the production studio. With 40% more graphic processing power than its predecessor, the RXII delivered superprecise graphics at an exceptional response time. This was critical for a high-intensity filming shoot, where every second mattered. 

For filming, Mushang XR made use of the VX range, particularly the VX4 and VX2. The VX media servers could play back video content at the highest possible quality, smoothness and resolution. This meant that the background effects for filming were pixel perfect and rendered in real time.

“Our experience working with Disguise was great! And stable as always. We can’t wait to collaborate with Disguise again on our next shoot.” says Sha.