Ricky Martin's new single The Best Thing About Me is You marks a new musical direction for the Puerto Rican superstar.
Press Release from Nice Shoes
Ricky Martin's new single The Best Thing About Me is You marks a new musical direction for the Puerto Rican superstar. The song is an earthy, laid back and acoustic-oriented pop departure from the glossy club anthems he was known for in the '90s.
For the accompanying music video, Martin evokes the song's lyrical theme of equality by performing surrounded by a diverse cast of models and a series of hand-drawn, calligraphic text designed and animated by New York-based creative studio Nice Shoes. Nice Shoes and Elastic People Director Carlos Pérez worked closely on the video from concept to completion, discussing the general vision and scope of the project and bouncing ideas off of one another throughout the creative process.
"Because of the joyful, expressive nature of the video, it was important to keep everything as natural looking as possible," says Creative Director Aron Baxter, who drew on his background in calligraphy and typography to design the type composited into 120 shots in English and Spanish versions of the video. "Everything was generated by hand, free-form. There's no default font or typeface at all in the whole piece."
Baxter and his team added an array of handmade textures to the video, creating bold, graceful paint strokes to emphasize key emotions from the lyrics.
"Aron would be feverishly painting words, we'd manually scan them in, get them in the cut and lay them out to create the dimension and animate in Flame," says producer Jen Cadic. "It was all about creative swiftness. Working with Elastic People was very collaborative and the video came together really nicely."
"To collaborate with Nice Shoes was seamless," noted Director Carlos Pérez. "Their attention to detail, down to the wire, contributed greatly to the end product."
Credits:Product: Ricky MartinSpots Title: "The Best Thing About Me Is You"/"Lo Mejor De Mi Vida Eres Tu"Air Date: January 2011
Client: Sony Music Entertainment
Prod Company: Elastic PeopleDirector: Carlos PerezDP: Andres SanchezProducer: Felipe Nino
Editor: Manuel Perez Matos
Telecine: Prime FocusColorist: Eric Alvarado
Post/Effects: Nice ShoesCD: Aron BaxterVFX Artist(s): Aron Baxter, Russ Bigsby, Jason Farber, Vin Roma, Bryan Rosenblum, Rich SchreckVFX Assistants: Cicely Brooks, Tony Dolezal, Kevan LeeHead of Production: Michael DonovanProducer: Jen Cadic
Design: Nice Shoes | Elastic PeopleCD: Aron Baxter, Carlos PérezDesigner: Jonathan GershonAnimator(s): Jonathan Gershon, Theo DaleyAdd'l Design: Marlie Decopain, Raymond Gems, Mark AllenHead of Production: Michael DonovanProducer: Jen Cadic
About Nice Shoes:NYC-based Nice Shoes is a full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. Since its inception in 1996, the studio has prided itself on consistently reinvesting in its talent, technical backbone, and client experience to set the standard of excellence both creatively and technically. Key company principals include: CEO/Partner Dominic Pandolfino, Head of Production Mike Donovan, CDs Brian Bowman and Aron Baxter, Colorists/Partners Chris Ryan and Lez Rudge, Senior Producers Pat Portela and Christos Mountzouros, VFX Artist/Partner Rich Schreck, and CIO Bob Keske.
For more information please visit www.niceshoes.com.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
