Hey Hasher's! Just sharing with you some of my recent work...

I just finished-up a test for a TV ad campaign my company wants to win. A:M once again was able to generate a quick test that I feel good about.

-Newton Dynamics was used for the 'Liberty Bell' dropping into the scene. 1 simulation was done and saved as an action...applied to the main chor and sped-up slightly.
-SimCloth was used to get the tablecloth draped over the table... I will use a denser mesh if I get the chance to do the spot for real.
-DISPLACEMENT was used for the raised text on the Liberty Bell.
-Simbiont material was used for the copper on the Liberty Bell.
-VOLUMETRIC was used for the light shaft... I had troubles with it but got it working fine.
-Sir Nigel from the hash CD was used as a stand-in for the 'talent'. If the agency likes Sir Nigel I may have to negotiate with Jim Talbot for usage...

We'll know soon if we are awarded the campaign. There are 8 :15 spots all featuring different objects that DROP heavily into the scene to signify how large the Mega-Millions jackpot is. I might need some help from a few of our talented modelers....

Very nice! How did you do the smoke when the bell hits the ground? post?

nice hand poses.

Yup.Post-production. New Additive white Layer...animate a mask, transparency...add a 'Roughen edges', 'blur' and 'noise filters...

John, you have sure been hard at work, I find these so interesting....nice shot, so real looking

Thanks- I am not trying to pass it off as 'realistic'... I insist it is 'stylized-realism'. Realism is a carrot-on-a-stick.

OK- Heard from the ad agency... they LOVED IT!

Then, they set about killing it. CHANGE it from black limbo to white limbo, lose the spotlight, and the camera moves...lock-off the camera. The changes were not hard to implement in A:M, but I am now sitting back and looking at...what was once an effective and captivating animation is now...a TURD! They also want to address the 'realism' aspect, which makes me want to walk away altogether... give them Pixar's phone number for a quote.

All this without them having ever even shown it to their client, Michigan Lottery. It just kills me how they can claim 'WE LOVE IT!' and then piss all over it. Advertising is a strange business, I should have listened to Mom and went into proctology...less A--holes to deal with!

Ah well---win some lose some!

That looks good John ,but theye kno best , yea right

Looked very professional to me, I liked it. You've been turning out some great stuff Matt.

I think your original one was pretty effective and well done. There might not be a lot you can do, but here are a couple of ideas. If you make their requested changes and it's flat, maybe it needs something else on top of that? Different camera angle? They said no camera movement, but maybe one slow camera transition instead of two fast ones? Some other gag?

Thanks Mouseman... your on track. I finally got them to accept the idea of a CUT from a close-up on the hand, to the wide angle. It just KILLS me to leave a 3D camera still... I don't know why. I used to work on a crew that shot film and to get a nice camera move required a Fischer dolly or an elaborate motion-control rig or a steady-cam gyro... we were NEVER able to achieve perfection, which 3D does SO easily.