Discover how design studio Streetmonkey created a brand awareness animation slot for CompareNI.com
Flash is required! --
By Duncan Evans
One of the attractions of using CG is that it is very effective at creating striking and memorable characters and scenes. That was the idea when CompareNI approached Streetmonkey to create a 30-second advertising slot for TV and online. The objective was to create a distinctive look and feel through the use of 3D animated characters that would provide a strong brand association and increase traffic to the website, and expand their customer base.
The biggest challenge faced by Ian Lawrence, the animator/motion graphic designer for Streetmonkey, was the deadline of just five weeks for a complete 720p project. Ian explained, "The main technical challenges involved the creation of the characters, seascape environment, animation, and rendering within the project timeline."
The story then features a salty old sea dog of a captain called Rod and his trusty seagull accomplice. When a customer checks online for a quote, the captain casts his net over a range of prices from companies all around the UK, including Northern Ireland, where the advert was to be broadcast. The overall technical consideration was to work out simple and efficient techniques for solving various problems, from creating the dynamic cloth fishing nets to an overall lighting and rendering solution that could keep the rendering of each frame to less than 15 minutes. This was important due to last minute changes that inevitably occur.
First up was the water simulation, which needed to be choppy with lots of animation. Ian Lawrence detailed how and why it was done, "There were tight advertising deadlines, so the water was created with a large, flat plane to which three separate wind modifiers were applied. This resulted in a nice cartoony-looking sea movement. On the sea material there were also animated displacement noise and diffusion maps, which added a little bit more subtle detail to the movement. A proximal shader was also used in combination with animated noise shaders to achieve a white water foam effect around objects in the sea."
The main character, the captain, is all hat, teeth and beard. Fortunately, CINEMA 4Ds own excellent Hair module provided a nice integrated and efficient way to create the look. The styling for the captain and the overall look and feel of the animation was developed through character sketches and feedback from the advertising agency for which Streetmonkey produced the ad. Ian added, "We wanted to ground the animation somewhere between modern 3D animation and a feeling of nostalgia, with robust characters and environments that almost look hand-crafted."
One of the more complex effects in the animation is the use of the fishing net to capture quotes, but, with CINEMA 4D, it worked out to be an easy task, as Ian revealed, "The cloth used in the fishing nets was a fairly simple setup, the net being a single cloth sheet with a hi-res fishing net in the alpha channel. Around the edges of the net, we belted on some floats that had a dynamics simulation applied to them, causing the net to fall and wrap around the collider objects on the land."
On other elements of the animation, the character tool for rigging helped a great deal and enabled Streetmonkey to concentrate on more creative aspects of the animation rather than get caught up in technical mumbo jumbo.
A basic GI setup was used to create the lighting, using Physical Sky and careful placement of additional non-GI lights to pick out certain areas and provide highlights. This kept the all-important render time down, and with six Mac Pros (2.66GHz, six-core Intel Xeon) they were able to render three to four scenes overnight, providing the clients with daily updates.
Once various render passes for each scene had been created, they were composited in After Effects. Ian explained how the finishing touches were applied, "We edited it down to the timings, graded the whole animation and applied a few post effects, including the steam on the coffee mug and the sea spray when the boat comes to a stop, both created with the Red Giant Particular plugin. The seamless export process of 3D cameras and lights from CINEMA 4D to After Effects meant this was easily done. At Streetmonkey we have used CINEMA 4D in our creative pipeline for over 10 years because of its ease of use, stability, and speed in turning around a project within the timeframe."
Duncan Evans is a freelance journalist, photographer and author.
For more work by Streetmonkey, please visit: http://streetmonkey.tv/our-work/
Most recent headlines
30/12/2024
Digital Domain Creates Groundbreaking VFX for Venom: The Last Dance, Bringing ...
30/12/2024
Internet Giant GMP Builds Tokyo Virtual Event Space with URSA Broadcast G2
Brie Clayton December 30, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 and ...
30/12/2024
Renderboxes launches Photon, a no-compromise transportable high-performance work...
30/12/2024
Shinobi II Monitor Supports Canon, Sony, Nikon - Touch to Focus with New Feature...
30/12/2024
The pace of technology innovation has accelerated in the past year, most dramati...
29/12/2024
Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Foundation (GCAF), an active promotor of cultural and artistic diversity, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X700 camera chains for integration i...
27/12/2024
After starting 2024 with hopes that the transition to streaming might finally produce a more stable, profitable businesses, the media and entertainment industry...
27/12/2024
Broadcasters ended the year with hopes and fears about how the federal government will regulate the TV industry in 2025. While the incoming Trump administration...
27/12/2024
NVIDIA's AI Podcast gives listeners the inside scoop on the ways AI is transforming nearly every industry. Since the show's debut in 2016, it's gar...
26/12/2024
Talking about artificial intelligence in 2024 is akin to talking about the internet in 1994 everyone's excited about it and thinks it will have an enormous ...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Netflix NFL Christmas Gameday Reaches 65 Million US Viewers
Entertainment
26 December 2024
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
N...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Check Out All the Must-See Trailers From Netflix's NFL Chr...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Beyonc Delivers Epic Gift of a Halftime Performance "Beyonc...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Get in the Game With Squid Game' Season 2 Complete Coverage Guide
Entertainment
26 December 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Are...
26/12/2024
This GFN Thursday wraps up another incredible year for cloud gaming. Take a look back at the top games and new features that made 2024 a standout for GeForce NO...
24/12/2024
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is calling for applications from South African film and television filmmakers to be part of the NFVF's delegat...
24/12/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau said Paramount Global is being fined $244,952 for violations of emergency alerting rul...
24/12/2024
NEW YORK Carnegie Hall's video-streaming channel, Carnegie Hall+, said it will celebrate the holiday season by offering a wide selection of holiday-themed o...
24/12/2024
LOS ANGELES PlayersTV, an athlete and fan-owned media company, has announced the acquisition of Cloud Media Center, an AI-driven sports adtech and media distrib...
24/12/2024
The Best Playlists of 2024 The top playlists we created in 2024, from dad rock to dembow.
By
Tara Bellucci
December 23, 2024
Image by Kelly Davidson
Tak...
24/12/2024
Editor's note: This post is part of the AI Decoded series, which demystifies AI by making the technology more accessible, and showcases new hardware, softwa...
23/12/2024
At IBC2024, Grass Valley CTO Ian Fletcher told attendees at GV Forum that broadcast is now an IT industry. During our discussions at the show, TVBEurope heard v...
23/12/2024
According to co-director Nick Park, the production team embraced technology to help create the iconic duos latest adventure
By Jenny Priestley
Published: Dec...
23/12/2024
VFX house Lux Aeterna used wave height data from the National Oceanic & Atmosphe...
23/12/2024
We are committed to supporting and investing in Foxtel's television and streaming services, across both sports and entertainment, using our world-leading te...
23/12/2024
From AI to IP, the cloud to virtual production, key industry executives take a look back at some of the biggest trends that impacted the media and entertainment...
23/12/2024
Boost Graphics, the specialist international graphics and virtual production subsidiary of EMG / Gravity Media, the leading force in production and content & me...
23/12/2024
LucidLink, the leading storage collaboration platform revolutionizing how global teams work, proudly announces its achievement of the prestigious Trusted Partne...
23/12/2024
Mediagenix, a leader in software solutions for content strategy, content value management, and content scheduling, announces the appointment of Bruno Langlais a...
23/12/2024
WCTEPublic Media Venture Group (PMVG) has announced that it is now providing real-time translation of closed captioning from English to Spanish on PMVG's Ne...
23/12/2024
Deltatre, the tech company behind the media and sporting moments that matter, has appointed Charlie Mitchell as Head of Sports for the Americas. Charlie will sp...
23/12/2024
Media Excel, a global leader in real-time video solutions, proudly announces the appointment of Matthew Goldman to its Technical Advisory Board. A distinguished...
23/12/2024
Disguise the company behind the virtual production technology used on commercials for Apple Music and Lenovo, as well as feature film Daddio starring Sean Pen...
23/12/2024
Leading AI and video search company Moments Lab is pleased to announce its integration with Bitcentral. The integration enables Bitcentral Oasis MAM users to en...
23/12/2024
Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV (CTV), today announced that ABC Commercial has partnered with Amagi to la...
23/12/2024
Digital Alert Systems, the global leader in emergency communications solutions for media providers, today announced that Ed Czarnecki, the company's vice pr...
23/12/2024
Matthews Studio Equipment, known for the heftiest hardware, has a new solution to simplify mounting live production moving lights to standard grip equipment. Th...
23/12/2024
Matthews Studio Equipment expands its trusted Road-line with the launch of RoadBags, durable fillable sandbags available in three sizes. Whether in the studio o...
23/12/2024
Sport Lisboa e Benfica, one of Portugal's most prestigious football clubs, has partnered with Clear-Com to upgrade the communications system at the Est dio...
23/12/2024
At stand B6.734, Black Box will showcase its Emerald KVM-over-IP solution, which enables smarter studio control with secure remote access from anywhere, along...
23/12/2024
OOONA, a leading provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announced today a partnership with Audio Descript...
23/12/2024
Dunk The Halls: ESPN Refines Animated Altcast Tech and Ops with a Helping Hand F...
23/12/2024
With the holiday season in full swing, we are delighted to bring you a special digital event, Leading Through Change with Technicolor Group's Chief People O...
23/12/2024
Netflix Kicks Off NFL Christmas Games: Behind the Scenes With the Streaming Gian...
23/12/2024
Friendly Confines Go Frozen: TNT Sports Augments 2024 NHL Winter Classic Coverag...
23/12/2024
ESPN's Tina Thornton on Producing The Simpsons Funday Football, Upcoming Dun...
23/12/2024
Dunk The Halls: ESPN Refine Animated Altcast Tech and Ops with a Helping Hand Fr...
23/12/2024
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday Live Comes to Netflix With Blimps, Hot C...
22/12/2024
News Corp Announces Agreement to Sell Foxtel to DAZN for Enterprise Value of A$3...
Discover how design studio Streetmonkey created a brand awareness animation slot for CompareNI.com
