filmblender » 3D

Eggo – Transformers

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:56:17 +0000

Eggo – Transformers
Another Eggo commercial, this one a short spot for new Transformers Funpix Waffles.

Eggo – Wii Go Gokart!

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:11:49 +0000

Ok.. Who wants to race?

Vroom! Original Eggo got himself some wheels and he’s ready to go! These are two 15 second spots we did for a Kellogs Eggo / Wii Mariokart promotion. Aren’t you glad all your food doesn’t taunt you this way?

Click below to view the animation:

Eggogogo ‘Drives fast’:

Eggogogo ‘Wii Mario Kart Promo:

Scrabble cubes

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 04:04:51 +0000

Play scrabble online and be glamourous in a sassy sixties style.

This commercial for an online 3d scrabble game at worldwinner.com integrates flying cubes and a fifties design sensibility. We finished this spot just before going off to the Ottawa Animation festival this year, but it took a while to get the final logo approval from Hasbro, so I’m just posting the final now.

This was one of those rare jobs where the client doesn’t have a specific idea in mind and they leave it up to us to write, design and produce the ad. We came up with the 50′s fashion theme as a way to tie into the nostalgia of this classic boardgame and I love the way the 2d animation and design works with the 3d cubes.

The 2d design and animation for this spot was done with a combination of flash, illustrator, photoshop and after effects. Bruce Alcock, Paul Boyd and Celest Brown all had a hand in the design.

credits:

Directed by: Nathaniel Akin
Production: Global Mechanic
Creative Director: Bruce Alcock
Producer: Matthew Charde
Animation: Nathaniel Akin, Celest Brown, Paul Boyd
Agency: Almighty

Random technical geekery: This was an interesting project because its the first time I’ve tried to do full 3d within after effects. I’ve always run into issues translating 3d camera moves from maya into aftereffects and was looking for a way around this which prompted us to buy the zaxwerks 3d invigorator plugin.

This plugin has some interesting potential for integrating full 3d into aep projects. Its mainly limited to static 3d objects, but it allows you to import meshes from maya as well as a few other 3d formats and control lighting and camera within after effects. Updating and previewing imported 3d objects is sluggish, particularly once you start adding lights, etc. – fortunately you can parent the objects to simple solid proxies enabling you to preview camera movement and animation quickly. Though its not perfect, the zaxwerks 3d plugin can be quite handy and I can definately see using it in the future, particularly for basic 3d projects when working with animators who are familiar with the aftereffects camera, but not any ‘full 3d’ software.

Ottawa Animation Festival – Signal Film 2006

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:48:49 +0000

It's time to harvest the animation..

Here’s the signal film we put together for the 2006 Ottawa Animation Festival – whatta show! Towards the end there I go into animation saturation mode walking out of short film screenings in a daze trying to remember what I just watched. This was a great year being the 30th(!) year of the festival, and this odd-duck signal film was well-recieved. It’s jam-packed with a bunch of different scenes in various styles by a number of talented animators who are excellent people to work with.

Click below to view the signal film:

Credits:

Directed by Nathaniel Akin & Bruce Alcock

Animators:
Chez Battista
Steve Hillman
Deb Dawson
Marv Newland
Cliff Saito
Paul Boyd
Ian Godfrey
Celest Brown
Nathaniel Akin
Scott Kiborn
Kenneth Myers
Pablo Gonzalez
Bruce Alcock

Converse Mandala

admin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:23:03 +0000

A simple shoe becomes a kaleidascopic extravaganza!

This commercial for converse chuck taylor shoes was created along with the converse sky ad. The approach was to play with swirling animated mandala patterns for this spot and I love the way it turned out. This ad was done in a hybrid stop-motion style and composited in After Effects. I shot several rotations of a couple pairs of converse and then remixed and recombined them into these mandala forms.

I used expressions to drive the patterns and just watching some of the footage preview as I was working on was a mesmerizing trip.

Quicktime version available here:
http://afterfx.net/video/mandala

Kittikat – Nickelodeon

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:52:01 +0000

Do androids dream of electric cats?

I designed and directed this series of bumpers for Nickelodeons Nicktoons animation focused digital tv channel. The cat character was originally designed for a different nickelodeon project, but they were keen on using it to brand nicktoons. I have an affection for characters with featureless or blank expressions like this cat, I like the way their mood is vague and up for interpretation.

These station ids were created in Maya and rendered with a toonshader (ironically called ‘tomcat’). Final compositing was finished in After Effects. The music was created by Dennis Burke.

view the animation here:

Credits:

Directed by: Nathaniel Akin
Studio: Global Mechanic
Producer: Tina Oullette
Animation: Nathaniel Akin, Ian Godfrey, Paul Parvelescu, Bruce Alcock

Quicktime version here:
http://afterfx.net/video/nicktoons-cat-bumpers