AXN Brand Promo - ‘All the Faces of Action’

Ever since I finished AXN’s ‘Moment in Time’ channel promo a couple of years ago, I’ve fancied applying the same technique to human faces. I was also influenced by Onesize’s amazing Playground Festival titles from 2009.

Projection mapping is the technique of projecting a 2D picture onto a 3D object. The 3D geometry gives the picture a third dimension which you can exploit by panning or zooming the camera. You can’t move too much otherwise you start to see the distortion of the image stretched around the sides and back.

At last, back in November, I got the perfect opportunity to do it. Lambie Productions asked me to pitch an idea for AXN’s new brand promo showcasing the upcoming season of programmes. The brief was to focus on the characters’ faces and reveal or dissect them in a ‘cutting edge way’. I won the pitch (see below) and spent January animating it.

I started off using a piece of software called FaceShop which is supposed to generate 3D models from photos but I found it fairly useless. It seemed to generate identical models from different photos. It did at least give me a decent starting point which I then pushed and pulled around in Cinema 4D to fit the various characters. The projections all go a bit wrong around the nostrils so you’ll notice there’s no shots looking up noses! Next, I used Nitro4D’s Thrausi C4D plugin to fracture the model into pieces. Once the model was fractured it was fairly simple using C4D’s mograph to animate the pieces exploding apart in various ways.

As usual with Lambie Productions, I worked closely with director Tim Lacey to reach the final outcome.

PBS Idents

PBS, the US public service broadcaster, launched in the UK earlier this month. Creative branding agency Dunning Penney Jones (DPJ) were appointed to create their on-air branding.

DPJ devised a concept which communicates the brand promise of ‘Epic True Stories’ and the breadth of content to be featured on the new channel across it’s four key programming genres: history, science, current affairs and arts and entertainment. The simple yet visually arresting concept takes the viewer on a journey through vibrant imagery, using dynamic camera moves to create an infinite photographic montage.

Under the direction of DPJ designer Peter Allinson, Mooschool animated the concepts using Trapcode Form to produce a huge grid of picture circles. The Trapcode plugin cast another picture over all the circles, visible only when a camera is set back enough to enable 20,000 circles/dots to provide enough definition. A lot of time was spent on developing the camera moves and smoothing the joins between a bigger picture becoming part of the next picture.

It was a challenging project; it often is when you’re so dependent on a plugin and its occasional irregularities. It’s the most I’ve thrown at a computer for a while. Staring at thousands of circles for a month certainly tested my sanity. But, sitting here watching the idents back afresh, I’m really pleased with them and, more importantly, DPJ and PBS are too.

PBS UK is on Sky Channel 166.

RBS Sponsorship Ident

Here’s a simple but, hopefully you’ll agree, polished ident we recently designed and animated for M&C Saatchi. RBS sponsored ‘Jack Nicklaus’ Greatest Open Course’, a documentary broadcast on STV to celebrate 150 years of the Open championship.

Thomson Reuters

The branding agency, Jack Morton invited Mooschool to present ideas for the global launch of Thomson Reuters new financial website. The main event of the launch was based around 4 huge LED arches tunneling towards an HD 16:9 LED screen. Our concept centred around the idea of this financial tool ‘connecting financial professionals around the globe.’ This animatic, explaining the opening sequence, was part of our pitch which unfortunately we lost to th1ng.

AXN Mobile

Sony AXN Italy have teamed up with 3 Mobile to make the AXN and AXN Sci-Fi channels available on mobile phones. Lambie Productions commissioned Mooschool to help them create an explosion-packed 30sec sequence promoting the new service.

FTI Consulting

Bruce McKelvie, Head of TV at M&C Saatchi, asked Mooschool to help design and animate an ident for FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm. The brief was to explain their “one brand” strategy; converting all of their acquired firms to the FTI Consulting brand, in an elegant and intelligent way.

Currys / PC World Campaign for M&C Saatchi

Back in March of last year, Mooschool were hired by M&C Saatchi to update an After Effects template which Tandem Films had designed for Currys. It contained a teardrop shape christened the ‘Squircle’. A month or so later, we grabbed the opportunity to become more creatively involved in the project: Some Currys outlets were expanded and merged with PC World stores to create new megastores nationwide. (Currys and PC World are both part of the Dixons Stores Group.) PC World’s existing advertising was more glossy and 3D than Currys and the client wanted this to influence a new joint brand campaign.
Mooschool’s brief was to provide a project template, containing a new 3D squircle design, which could then be updated in M&C’s new in-house After Effects suites, just as Tandem had before. As the campaign progressed however, it was clear that most of the ads would need individual tailoring to accommodate the client’s requests. Working closely with M&C’s creative Pat McMenamin and copywriter Dave Edwards, Mooschool provided numerous templates for different durations, multiple products, Christmas and January Sales versions and occasionally the two brands wanted to advertise separately. Understandably, the way the logos animated coming together was of key importance and several ideas were presented before we reached the final solution.

A Christmas version was developed including 3D baubles and (subtle!) snow. The studio environment has adopted a slight purple tint at the request of PC World.

Mooschool designed the squircles’ new glossy 3D look. This sequence contains one of the previous logo animation tests which places more importance on the central applet. There’s also an early SALE animation included but this was redesigned more drastically in December. (See top video.)

Original 2D Currys ad based on Tandem’s design.