Always Working

I’ve taken a growing interest lately in “behind the scenes” videos for large budget productions. One animated video that I recently saw was a short promo for McDonalds called Always Working. It was a one minute piece made with 3D printed figures and a background full of miniature plastic trees and hills. The reddit user who posted it also included a “making of” video that I found to be very interesting. It shows all aspects of the production process, including some of the character modeling in Maya and compositing in After Effects. The reddit user was an animator on the project and also held a mini AMA (Ask Me Anything) session in the comments of the post. I think that videos like this one give an interesting glimpse of what it may be like to work as a professional animator.

Digital Product Placement

In recent years, it has become increasingly popular for studio distributors to sell promotional spots in their syndicated programing, squeezing even more money out of their rich syndication deals. This comes in the form of product placement. However, it's more high-tech than placing a cereal box in the background of a scene--this is done digitally. If you watch closely, advertisements in some of your favorite reruns may suddenly appear or change from the what was shown in the original episode.

Take this How I Met Your Mother reference for example. 

The first picture is what originally aired when the episode premiered. The ladder features a Gatorade advertisement that was added years later.

In 2011, another syndicated episode of HIMYM (2006 original air) contained this advertisement for the movie Bad Teacher which was released in theaters around that same time. 

This was done by SeamBI; a company that is changing the game. They've made it so that brands can purchase product placement within a syndicated show in the same manner that they'd buy regular advertisements. SeamBI is responsible for digitally inserting new ads into old programs. The break down their process into three steps: 

1. Identifying product placement opportunity with content

2. Integrating the advertisements once sold.

3. Delivering the ad-enhanced content to the designated broadcasters. 

Most recently, Mirriad has also become a popular digital ad firm. 

The major value in this technology is the ability to customize and integrate content quickly. It works to help target very specific geographic areas and markets. That is something that every advertiser wants.