A 30-second spot for the Chevrolet Volt based on my Pavement Loop series.
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An initial storyboard was prepared using the original Pavement Loop pieces directly. Zoic later recreated them from scratch for the spot, as seen in the following frames.
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I modeled this twisted V-shaped network of roads in a few minutes to demonstrate an idea I had for the closing shot. Due to time constraints, however, Zoic used the model directly. They gave it some much needed texturing, but from what I heard the geometry was unaltered.
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client.
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chevrolet
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agency.
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publicis
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production house.
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zoic studios
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art director.
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leif allen
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creative director.
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david bryant
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writer.
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casey brewer
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interactive producer.
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marisa schoen
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original design.
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alex varanese
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First things first—these beautiful renders are stills from a piece produced by Zoic Studios. I wish I could say they're mine, but alas, they aren't.
Second, I'm not quite able to post the actual video just yet. Without getting into the whole backstory, there's still some red tape surrounding the particular cut of the piece I'd like to show, so these stills (which only represent about half of the sequence) will have to do until that clears up.
Anyway, Publicis was putting together a 30-second spot for the Chevrolet Volt when they came across my Pavement Loop series and wanted to know if I'd be interested in helping them adapt it into animation. After providing the artwork itself, which was used directly in the storyboarding process and then indirectly to set the art direction for the final piece, Zoic Studios took over.
The idea was that a number of my original Pavement Loop designs would appear in the spot directly, but that presented an interesting challenge: how do you adapt a heavily abstracted series of posters that were never intended to move into a convincingly realistic motion piece without losing anything?
We worked together over the course of a week or so trying to answer that question. I provided sketches and general commentary on how I envisioned the aspect ratio changing from an 18x24" poster to a 16:9 HD frame, and they started cranking out rough cuts. Once we'd adapted the basic scenes, we moved on to fleshing them out to take further advantage of the medium. I suggested things like oscillating the road segments to create a snake-like movement across the paths, and they came up with some truly inspired camera movements that took the ideas in the original pieces to an entirely new level. Of course, it was all fun and games for me; all I had to do was brainstorm and free associate while they burned the candle at about 12 different ends to crank out an insanely detailed spot in record time.
Working with Zoic was like working with a genie that can just will imagery into existence. Not only are these guys mind-blowingly fast, but their modeling skills and rendering sensibilities are razor sharp. It also doesn't hurt that they've got some serious hardware at their disposal. I'm still blown away that these spoiled bastards can render motion blur in camera while I'm doing it in post like a sucker.
Whatever.
The hard work paid off, though, and the finished piece is 100% awesome. Not only did they do a remarkably good job adapting the posters into motion, but they added a ton of great new ideas of their own, all of which compliment the original vibe quite naturally (and some of which I might be a little jealous of).
Lastly, I have to say that Publicis and Zoic might be the coolest clients in history. Really. We live in a world where independent artists are routinely ripped off by larger companies, often in ways that aren't even illegal to begin with, and that can make it tricky for little guys to carve out a niche. These guys, however, not only went out of their way to involve me directly, but did everything they could to keep their interpretation as true as possible to my work. Seriously, how cool is that? Designers are so used to the idea of dealing with jerks in the commercial space that it's easy to get cynical about the industry as a whole, but these guys totally restored my faith in humanity. I lost it again the next day when some jackass in an F-150 cut me off, but it was nice while it lasted.
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