Radium lent its creative editorial, design, visual effects and animation talents to DOT MATRIX, a sleek duo tone package for Lowe Worldwide and its client GMC Yukon Denali. In the evolution of The Behind the grille campaign, Radium helped create a captivating automotive brand film in :30 and :20/10 second versions for broadcast. The spot was directed by The Cronenweths, with production company Untitled.
The underlying concept was to use visual metaphors to convey the qualities of the Yukon Denali power, agility, engineering precision using the SUVs distinctive honeycomb holed grille to underscore brand recognition. The camera literally zooms in behind the grille to reveal each of the live- action sequences, reinforcing the theme that the qualities exemplified in the live action sequences are found deep within the Yukon Denali brand.
The whole idea of this campaign for the Yukon Denali line was Whats behind this grille, according to agency producer Nikki Brancati. The camera moving through the holes of the grille to reveal inherent qualities of the vehicle was done the previous year for GMCs Denali Line, but it was more about the characteristics of vehicle. The Yukon Denali is built from premium materials; leather, chrome, wood, and is the ultimate in professional engineering. We wanted to convey the idea that the truck represents elegance and class wrapped in a sophistication that speaks for itself using the metaphors of strength, grace and precision throughout the spot, according to agency creative director Tom Quaglino.
The graceful and powerful live action sequences a tiger chasing its prey, a fencing duel were shot in color and converted to black-and-white, giving the images a clean, stylized look. The grille is a shiny silver metal, so to accentuate that a black and white color palette was chosen.
In the opening sequence, the camera follows the leaping movement of a Siberian tiger, moving to full frame into the tigers face as it pounces for the kill. The camera freezes on the tigers stripes, zooming in until the image transforms into a dot matrix pattern. The dots even out into the consistent honeycomb grid of the Denali grille, until deep in the center hole an image of jousting fencers is revealed.
The camera follows the fencers in a series of choreographed moves, until one takes a final heart-piercing thrust for victory. This image then freezes and reduces to half-tone dot matrix, transforming again into the GMC grille.
The final sequence focuses on the inner workings of a wristwatch created entirely in CG to show in extreme close-up the precision of its engineering and design. As the camera descends into the portal of the watch face, we see a vast space of gigantic gears turning in unison.
Radium used Maya to create the dot matrix, the GMC grille, and the vast gear chamber of the wristwatch. We had several distinct 3D problems to solve in this job: first getting a proportion of dots to the image and a camera pacing that was believable and seamless, and secondly the much more difficult task of lighting the brushed metal surfaces of watch gears to look photoreal, said Radiums director of design Melinda Tidwell.
For the inner workings of the watch, the goal was to visually match the quality and engineering features used by world-class watchmakers. The rendering had to look as beautiful as an ad in Vogue magazine. We put the same care in designing and in lighting the watch to help make the connection between fine jewelry and the Denali, according to Radiums 3D supervisor, Giancarlo Lari, who oversaw development of the CG watch sequences.
The dot matrix transitions had their own challenges, according to Melinda Tidwell. We wanted the dots to be small enough that it was believable that our continuous tone image would consist of these dots if you got close enough. The problem was that number of spheres animating every frame was fairly overwhelming to the computer. Also, too fine a pattern would have Moire effects at certain speeds, so there was a lot of testing involved in balancing the scale of the dot world, our speed moving through it, and the time we had for the transition in the edit.
Founded in 1996 by creative directors/visual effects directors Jonathan Keeton and Simon Mowbray, Radium (www.radium.com) brings innovative and inventive solutions to production and post-production. The San Francisco and Los Angeles studios work in tandem on projects, with comprehensive compositing, CG, editor and design divisions in-house. Comprised of the leading talents in the industry, Radium is home to a talented pool of artists with a diversity of background experience, with the ability to work in mediums, including broadcast, film, television, live action and design.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
