Animation in Performances

If you watched the Superbowl last Sunday, then you saw plenty of animation in the advertisements, but there was also some great animation in the halftime show. I'm talking about the stage Coldplay performed on. IT WAS SO COOL!!!

~woah~

I love it when artists use technology in their performances. Obviously I don't know whose idea this was, but for me, it totally worked. The bright colors, butterfly animations, and radial designs fit perfectly with the music and the color scheme of the dancers, musicians, and other performers. My friends and I agreed that Coldplay's performance would have looked even cooler if it were darker outside.

Another performance that I always think about when it comes to animation is Beyoncé's performance at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards. As a powerful artist and dancer, she's perfect for this type of performance. She must have had to work on her choreography for a long time working with animators, and then practicing to get the timing exactly right with the animation in her performance.

Still, we all know who had the best super bowl halftime show...

Never forget.

Floor Projectors

After Katy Perry's performance, the Sochi and Beijing opening ceremonies it was clear to me that floor projectors have become a high end and impressive part of live performances. We can change stadium floors to oceans, cliffs, or lava all in a matter of seconds. It is bringing animating and special digital effects to the brim of interacting with reality. They did an impressive job with all of the mapping at the halftime show but the only downfall is that they are hard to film.

How ever, I was fortunate enough to experience these mapping projectors at the opening ceremonies in Sochi. The projector and Katy Perry flying around literally as a firework reminded me a lot of the opening ceremonies. seeing it all first hand was really breathtaking. When the floor turned to water, you started to feel a little sea sick and it really sucked you into this virtual reality. And stories transitioned so much smoother and could tell so much more depth. In a matter of seconds a scene in the middle of an ocean would turn into a dance hall and then space. This combination of creating 2D images interacting with them in a 3D world is incredible fascinating to me and I can't wait to see how it is expanded upon in the future.

Madden Predictions

EA and Madden have been predicting the SuperBowl winners since the 2004 SuperBowl when the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers. Over that span the computer has gone a very solid 9-3 with their picks, most impressively correctly picking the exact final score of the most recent SuperBowl New England 28 Seattle 24. During this span Madden has also released a video showing what their simulation had happening throughout the game, including, the touchdown plays and big plays from the game. Using the in-game graphics to show how these games play out, Madden has been eerily accurate over the past decade. Every year the graphics of these videos improve along with the game graphics for each Madden, with this years looking incredibly realistic.

As you can see from the clip the textures and backgrounds and almost every single part of the animations of the game are incredibly realistic and show a very high attention to detail. As these animations continue to develop and the graphics for games continue to improve we will get better and better quality SuperBowl prediction videos, eventually it may even be like we are watching real game highlights.

Super Bowl Magic

So the Super Bowl was held in New York City this past season and besides a very one sided football game, the NFL had a decent attempt at making the city that never sleeps into the ultimate destination for Super Bowl week. Along with all of the sights to see, the NFL along with Moment Factory on the iconic Macy's storefront. Located in the heart of NYC, the projection mapping show was eight minutes long and included both 2-D and 3-D motion graphics along with game footage which mesmerized an estimated audience of over one million fans who visited Super Bowl Boulevard.

Super Bowl Virtual Theater - Demo from Moment Factory on Vimeo.

I Can't Think Of Anything Clever

So I was going to think of a clever title, but I got nothing, so here it goes:

I'm going to write about the new Transformers Age Of Extinction trailer that was unveiled during the Super Bowl. To start off I started tearing when I saw it because I love these movies and it looked incredible. So let us begin.

Watching this trailer really made me open my eyes. Now, I know that I wasn't exactly able to pin point specific effects that will be used in class, however, I was able to catch a lot of cool effects in general. The way that the trailer was made utilized a ton of different effects. The use of explosions and particles were made great. Granted the Transformers are always done with such high quality that the amount of detail that is put into them is probably out of this world.

If I relate this post to my last two, I can most definitely imagine that the Transformers movies take much more computing power and many more computers in render farms to create this movie. They are both long movies and EXTREMELY high resolution. Especially with the detail, like I stated above. If you want to watch the trailer, it is right here. If you are as impressed as I am with how this trailer makes the movie look, I am pretty sure no one will be anything less than impressed.

Super Bowl Commercials

Since it is Super Bowl weekend and many people love watching the commercials, I thought I'd post a few new ones (that have "leaked" or been released already by the company) and old ones! Over the past two decades, graphics and animation have visually changed but the principle + usage of them have stayed the same = enhancing and improving the aesthetics of said commercials.

I have included three different commercials (1992 7-Up and 2012 Chevy are said to be Super Bowl commercials ... 1993 Chevy was only one I thought was useful). They are are not necessarily the best commercials, but I chose them because I thought there were some good(ish) examples in them!

Diet 7-Up 1992 = this Super Bowl commercial is completely created on vectors, shapes, and motion graphics. From the animated circle men, 7-Up liquid flowing, and human hand movement in the end, the whole commercial is created or enhanced by the industry-leading software (at that time). Watch it on YouTube

Chevy 1993 -- these graphics are very subtle and simple ... I had to watch this a few times to notice the actual graphic changes / After Effects (or a other program). I might be seeing it wrong, and all the supposed graphics are just simple non-linear edits. Watch it on YouTube

Chevy 2012 -- 20 years after the shown 7-Up commercial, graphics and animation editing technology have improved. Now we can ultimately create a whole new 3D, interactive, and unique world. This "2012 Mayan Apocalypse" world is most likely created via After Effects or other 3D video creation program. Unfortunately there was no "behind the scenes" or "making of" videos yet, but I would assume that they had the humans and Chevy vehicles in front of a green screen for x number of takes and then keyed in the fiery, hell, disheveled scene. Watch it on YouTube