Modified 3D Arsenl scene for corporate intro

[Bill K]

This is the intro/beginning of a photomontage to commemorate a company anniversary. The company had a 40th Anniversary logo created by a graphics artist I thought would be nice to include in the intro. I went to the Philadelphia Newtek tour earlier this year and heard Ralph Messana talking about how someone modified one of the 3D Arsenal "Toaster Dudes" scenes for a corporate video and thought this was a great opportunity to do something similar.

It seemed like I could have worked "forever" on the LW intro alone; however, due to time constraints (i.e., the day of the Anniversary celebration dinner when the video would be shown), I had 11 days to deliver a product that included this intro + editing/restoring of 165 images; animating a third of them (Ken Burns) using AE, & scoring music/Fx.

The "original" 3D Arsenal scene that I used for the intro is 3Dcomp_plasma_rings.lws I swapped out the dancing girl for the 40th anniversary logo (created in LW9 using the company's 2D version as a guide + supplied fonts), turned the "picture frames" inward 180 degrees, and changed the timing/direction of the ring rotations. I used another Toaster Dudes scene from the Logo Arsenal after the intro.

Let me know what you think. What I found difficult/wierd was getting a "metallic green" color that would not "bleed" as the camera position/lighting changed during the intro.

I also put in a "bird flock" in the section that follows the opening. Aharon Rabinowitz posted a 2part tutorial on creativecow.net about creating a bird flock using AE.

Here is the link:
http://www.terminalvelocityvideo.com/gpi_anniversary.wmv
zip file of same:
http://www.terminalvelocityvideo.com/gpi_anniversary.zip

Bill K

[avkills]

Link?

-mark

[jayroth]

Hey Bill,

where is the link?

Regards,

Jay

[Safe Harbor]

I like the reflections on the gold surface. Looks very nice!

[ShawnStovall]

Very nice!!

[Snosrap]

Not bad. I do think the 3D Arsenal is going to be a really nice tool for a lot people. A few comments if I may. The opening treatment was nice, two things struck me though. The logo was great and well done, but that style didn't seem to go well with the monitors in the background. Another thing was I think the opening lingered a little long. There is a part where the music changes tempo and I was thinking something was going to move off or on the screen real fast, but that logo remained there for what seem like an eternity. You have a lot to be proud of in that opening, but you need not bore your audience with it. Also I think most of the images remained on the screen too long. But those are just my thoughts if that's what the client wanted then great. The bird flock was a nice touch. Overall I'd rate it a C+, but of course that's totally irrelevant if your client was please and you got paid. Good job!

Cheers
Snos

[Bill K]

Thanks to all for viewing. Snos - many of my thoughts while editing included ideas in your post. I tried making things "move" quicker and using more images during the first 45 seconds. Even though the music "moves", it didn't seem to work or fit with putting in more "eye candy". I decided to go with the "less is more" philosophy since I did not have time to play with the intro and get everything else done in the time allotted.

From the info I gathered, the company had a graphic arts firm in NYC create that logo in 2D, so they weren't about to get too bored with it; employees were looking at photos they took while those rings were moving. The client was thrilled, to say the least. The original plan was to play the DVD continuously on a big TV during the time booked at a country club for the corporate anniversary dinner. After seeing the final edit, the Senior Vice President had a large viewing screen and projector set up to make it a feature presentation for everyone to see at once.

[Snosrap]

The client was thrilled

You pleased your client and that's all that matters! Good job! I've had clients rave at stuff I thought was not my best work, but it was on time, on budget, got their message across, they paid on time and I had a blast! Doesn't get any better than that!

Cheers
Snos

[beckytv]

How long did it take you to make this and how long was your render time?
www.kyvideoservices.com

[Bill K]

The "logo" model took a few hours to create, matching the positions of the words/letters exactly with the 2D Illustrator original, surfacing everything, deciding how "thick" to make the sides of each word, etc.; then I swapped out the dancing girl in the original comp for the logo model. I also spent a few hours modifying the original Toasterdudes scene adjusting the ring rotations & timing (I turned all the "picture frames" inward 180 degrees first), adding lights, animating the camera, and tweaking the lighting.

I did a lot of test "stills" that I brought into Final Cut Pro to view on a monitor, + 3 complete renders, each render taking approximately 28 hours on a PC for a 45 second animation using classic enhanced low antialiasing; I did not use adaptive sampling. I worked on the company's photomontage during the PC's renders; scanning, editing, restoring images and creating the photomontage in sections on my Macs. After each full render I tweaked the "green" color/surfacing, & lighting for the scene which was the biggest problem; the green would "bleed" and look blurry like a "non broadcast safe" color (despite adjusting the green's RGB values).

Figure about a day total for putting together the "scene", and a week to play with the render & run my PC constantly while I worked on the rest of the project (a 20 minute video) on my two Macs.

Bill K
www.TerminalVelocityVideo.com

[beckytv]

Very insightful reply...that's about what I thought.
Still a lot though.

That's what I was hoping 3D Arsenal would help with...by cutting down on "my" time to get good looking projects out the door. Clients do like this stuff...and, It's easy to modify...but, quality work still takes quality time.

Thanks

[Bill K]

The second animation (with the metal plate) I used in that video took much less time; create the logo, surface it, and render. Clients also like the Wedding Ammo Pack's virtual magazine & photo album shots. I've utilized 3D Arsenal animations for DVD menus.

Bill K