We recently completed this Heart Check Mark project for the American Heart Association’s Dallas-based marketing group.
The animation (a combo of 2D and 3D) was designed to quickly summarize the program and its growth since inception while engaging the audience.
Our last post showed examples of two On-Location ”Studio” Looks. In this post, we’re sharing a clip that utilizes available background.
In this case, we shot an interview in a room that had a bank of windows as part of the background. Instead of blocking out the light we decided to use the windows to our advantage.
By shooting with an 85mm lens, we were able to blur out the background – turning the “negative” obstacle of the harsh winter light coming in from the outside, into a “positive” interesting-looking background image.
Here’s the result:
We do a lot of on-location interviews. In the last year, we’ve done almost 100 interviews. All were shot on-location. More than ever, clients want to shoot where they are. People, at all levels within any company, just don’t have time to travel to a studio. That does not mean, however, that clients want to sacrifice quality.
Below are just two examples of what is possible on-location. Each interview has its own distinct look and feel, but were both shot in the same size room. When shooting on location, the physical space limitation is the main obstacle. Unfortunately, the reality is that the largest room most companies can offer is a conference room. Below you will see the results of shooting in a very small room, while still achieving a studio look. Both interviews were achieved using our standard camera package, lights and lenses – no special rental camera, light truck, gear or lens rentals were employed. For the two interviews below, we took advantage of our 85mm lens. The lens imparts a cinematic effect, beautiful skin tone, and a shallow depth of field, which provides an infinite studio look. We have determined that we can achieve a studio look in a room as small as 16’ wide, 20’ long, with 9’ ceilings for standing subjects, 7 ½’ ceilings for seated subjects. Anything larger is a bonus.
White Background approach:
Black Background approach:
Although shot in the same size room, the production and post-production approaches vary considerably, resulting in two very different interviews, each with their own distinct look and feel. What’s most exciting is that these are only two possibilities – there are infinite approaches.
Click below to read the full article as featured in the October 2009 issue of Marketplace Magazine: “Business Spotlight: They’re Causing a Kmotion”
Here’s more on-location footage shot in a small room. This time, we shot chroma key footage on a portable green screen. Here are the before and after images:
Since the movement was fast and youthful, we shot footage of lots of flailing arms and flipping hair (not the best source material for footage that we would later need to key).
We keyed the footage and then added graphics that appear to interact with the talent – moving around them, casting shadows on them and appearing to grow from their actions. The 3D motion graphic elements were rendered out in a manner which allowed us to move the graphic elements in front of and behind the actors seamlessly. We also motion tracked some of the shots allowing us to match the movement of the graphics to the actors movements.
When a client asks Kmotion Media to create a motion graphics animation we often use a technique called “keyframing”. To produce a keyframe animation, the animator creates the movement of an object manually by placing what are called “keys” at key points in the animation. There are times however when other methods of animation are better suited for the task at hand. This may involve “cell animation” where each frame of an animation is meticulously created by hand. Or it may involve creating procedural animations which are driven by mathematical formulas. Stunning visuals can be achieved by combining the use of mathematical formulas with traditional animation. For instance, the animation below is the result of a mathematical formula. These results of which would have been difficult to achieve with traditional key frame animation, however, quickly achieved using procedural animation.
To produce this type of animation the animator provides the initial conditions and runs a simulation to see the result. This type of animation can also be useful for simulating physics, cloth, hair, liquids, and even abstractions as seen in the example above.
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