Midas:
No More B.S.
In our latest spot for Midas called ‘No More B.S.’, animation and color play an outsize role in driving home the message. We follow an unsuspecting customer to a bad mechanic and get the feeling she’s being squeezed in more than one way thanks to the bigness of the animation and coldness of the color tones.
When asked about challenges on this shoot, Luis Miranda, 3D Artist and Motion Designer points to one particular scene, the opening shot in the office. Luis modeled the 3D text, composited the renders into the footage, and also did the animations for this spot. So when reflecting on that office scene Luis mentions the neon lettering, “One of the earlier spots required a bit more VFX to make it look realistic. In order to achieve the desired result, I had to recreate the office environment in 3D so that I could add additional lighting glowing from the neon sign. But once it was modeled and lit, the final product looked a lot better than simply adding the renders and adding a glow”.
Hover over image above to see before & after effects
Tap the image above to see before & after effects
Ryan Simpson, the Editor and 2D Animator on the spot, attests to the challenges of getting this scene right. "In the Anthem spot, we show the 3D title “BAD SERVICE” flying into the bad mechanic’s waiting room and knocking off a box –– a fun gag. The flow of the spot has her ringing a bell afterwards in a closer shot. The reaction of the actress that everyone was digging and wanted to use in the cut still had the box present, which would disrupt the continuity of that sequence. There weren’t any takes of that environment clean (without the actress), so I reconstructed the desk and folders, as well as the window behind her, from scratch and stitched it together.”
Simpson reflects on the timing of the edit and the way technology has helped make the process more nimble “Thankfully, rendering times on new machines have gotten remarkably quick because so have the post schedules.”
Hover over image above to see before & after effects
Tap the image above to see before & after effects
The unique color tone was set by Jensen Vinca the Colorist on this shoot. Vinca had a warm spot for the cool tones of the garage,
“The garage scenes in the Midas spot were my favorite. I got to play around with this moody blue tone that really popped against the warm lighting, giving it this cinematic feel. Plus, the mechanics just looked so good in that setup. Honestly, the casting team nailed it—they brought so much character to the scene!”
When collaborating on a project like this that has so many different elements it’s crucial to stay on the same page as your team. Simpson describes it this way, “All of the spots have a decent amount of graphics integration and fun sleight of hand, so considering those elements and how they would function from pre-production all the way through delivery was paramount.”
Hover over image above to see before & after effects
Tap the image above to see before & after effects
Miranda stresses the importance of staying integrated with the larger team, explaining their process: “Before I get started, I really like reading the treatment written by the director. I'll spend the day before the project starts to read the brief, look over the storyboards, watch the video links, etc, and make a list of questions and concerns so that when the project kicks off, I can address them right from the start. I find it to be really useful in avoiding any confusion and doing unnecessary work. With Midas, I feel like I was given a very clear direction from the very beginning, so it made my task a lot easier. Something I particularly enjoyed was when a technical hurdle came up, my suggestions were always considered and implemented into the workflow between me and the other artists along the production pipeline.”
Facing technical solutions with creative solutions is a theme Miranda knows well in their work as a 3D Artist, “I used to think that being technically proficient would breed creativity, but as I progressed in my career, I found that creativity often dictated the technical side. When you are free to imagine and come up with crazy ideas, you'll always figure out a technical solution to it. Part of being an artist is being a problem solver.”