This week we have been working on a superb project for Walker Modular, the leading manufacturer of Bathroom Pods in Great Britain & Europe. Being the primary supplier of bathroom pods to many of Europe’s leading developers and blue chip companies, they wanted a video to demonstrate the scale of their capabilities within pod manufacture.
The film project is now in full swing and below we’ve noted some of the processes that have gone into the production including; Motion Graphic Design, Animation, 3d Tracking and Colour Grading.
Graphics
Walker Modular have an established, strong and easily identifiable brand that makes use of flat design and hexagons, therefore the graphics we created needed to follow suit. The fonts used, taken from their style-guide are Helvetica Neue, Helvetica Neue Bold and Eurostyle. These fonts are stunning to look at and our animators said they were a joy to work with.
The graphics were prepared and placed in the video along with tracked text, working harmoniously with moving image and live action shots.
3d Tracking
Video tracking is the process of locating a moving object (or multiple objects) over time using a camera. It has a variety of uses but can be a time consuming process due to the amount of data that is contained in video.
Our objective was to associate target objects in consecutive video frames and position the graphics created accordingly. The association can be especially difficult when the objects are moving fast relative to the frame rate.
Another situation that increases the complexity of the problem is when the tracked object changes orientation over time. For this particular instance we used a motion model.
Each bit of footage for the edit was tracked using the 3d tracker in After Effects.
It was integral that the placement of the graphics was considered, as the most important thing is information communication. Although pretty, interesting visuals without clarity, text legibility or a focus on conveying a message were not part of this project. A balance, as ever, must be struck between aesthetics and communication.
Animation
We have been noticing, especially over the last few months, a trend growing in the UI’s of HUD’s and wanted to adopt a similar, data oriented feel to our composition to enhance the futurism inherent within Walker Modulars’ products.
A similar aesthetic can be seen in the art direction for games such as WatchDogs, or films such as Minority Report, Iron Man and Bladerunner.
Colour Grade
Following best practice and to give our motion designers as much room as possible to work their magic, the footage was shot flat, capturing the maximum amount of information in the shots as possible. This meant that the process of altering and enhancing the colour, look and feel of the video was down to digital enhancement and the results always really benefit from using this method as it gives us far more control than what is possible with a camera alone.
Other things to note with this particular project are to do with branding and stylisation. With Walker Modulars’ branding utilising the colour orange, the colour grade specifically works to pull these colours out of the footage. The shots inside the warehouses were made to feel ‘warmer’ and more vibrant, with the shots outside made ‘colder’, exaggerating brand colours and giving the footage a real sense of depth.
The last thing added to the grade was a slight vignette, there to soften the edges and give a more epic, cinematic feel to the final video.
We are very much looking forward to publishing the final result and it will be available to view on our website and Vimeo in the coming weeks.
By Motiv Video Productions, Leeds
