Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1062194
www.postmagazine.com 10 POST DECEMBER 2018 BITS & PIECES MAXON ANNOUNCES SENIOR LEADERSHIP APPOINTMENTS FRIEDRICHSDORF, GERMANY — Maxon (www. maxon.net/en-us), developer of professional 3D modeling, animation and rendering solutions, has announced a number of leadership appointments to drive its transformation to make it a globally-fo- cused software development company. The execu- tive leadership team changes, effective immediately, reflect the strategic goals of David McGavran, CEO, for the future of Maxon and its 3D software applica- tion, Cinema 4D. Most of the Maxon executive team members are already well known by the Cinema 4D community, and all of them have been instrumental in the com- pany's many successes. "This is an exciting and transformational time in the evolution of Maxon and I'm eager to work with our new leadership team that represents the very best talent across our offices poised to take Maxon to the next level," states McGavran. The new leadership team includes: Philip Losch, chief technology architect; Oliver Meiseberg, chief product officer; Paul Babb, head of worldwide mar- keting; Friederike Bruckert, head of worldwide sales; Gesa Häfner, head of human resources and legal; Karsten Jancke, director of engineering; and Dieter Bonoff, director of IT. NICE SHOES ANIMATES NEW 'EINSTEIN' SHORT NEW YORK CITY — The passage of time has been pondered by brilliant scientists and popular culture creators alike, and the two worlds come together in an animated short from TED-Ed and creative studio Nice Shoes, What Is Time? The piece dives into the existence and meaning of time with the aid of an adorably rendered Albert Einstein, as well as a number of Easter Eggs, referencing surrealist art and classic sci-fi films. From a script crafted by the TED-Ed team, direc- tor Harry Dorrington developed an approach that paralleled the subject matter, simulating how time only flows forward in one direction by taking the viewer through the story with no edits. Dorrington worked closely with design director Yandong 'Dino' Qiu, to develop an illustrated, 2D style for the overall piece as well as the Einstein character. "The concept was very inspiring, and present- ed us with a rare opportunity to tell a story with a brand that wasn't tied to a particular product," says Dorrington. "To match the fluid nature of time we wanted to explore this concept in a way that was in- novative and engaging. When you cut, you have the ability to jump through time and space. We thought it would be interesting to embrace the linear nature of time and take the audience through the piece with one continuous shot." Following explorations of the look along with the single-take approach, it was decided that the piece would be animated in 3D, while keeping the feel that Qiu and Dorrington had presented to TED-Ed. Nice Shoes engaged Animanistan as a creative partner to aid in accomplishing the complex animation, with director of animation Nikola Vulovic expanding on Dorrington's vision and choreographing a seamless journey through space and time. "With an academic piece like this, the main creative challenge is to never let it get too dry," adds Dorrington. "That's especially a risk when dealing with complex concepts such as time and the theory of relativity, but we felt the best way to meet that challenge was to service the story by avoiding editing entirely. The film is about the flow of time, so why not take the viewer through time in a beautiful, animated tracking shot? We felt this worked as far as keeping the audience engaged and entertained, while quickly incorporating and seamlessly integrating the key points from the TED-Ed team's script." To complete the piece, artists relied on a com- bination of 3DS Max, Nuke, Maya and the Adobe Creative Suite. "Animanistan, and Nikola's particular style is very fluid, flowing animation which lends itself really well to this, and why we brought them on as a partner studio," explains Dorrington. "The film introduces and explains a number of abstract and complex concepts across a short period of time, and their team was instrumental in maintaining synchronicity between the visuals and the script, while keeping the viewer engaged." CG director Andy Zazzera and CG lead Alex Kline collaborated with Qiu to match the look of the styleframes. "We often need to make elements that are indis- tinguishable from real life objects," adds Zazzera. "To be true to the spirit of this piece, we needed to deliberately break the pipelines we normally use and develop a new workflow to wrap the animation in this rich, storybook texture. We ultimately devel- oped some in-house tools and techniques in order to bring what Harry and Dino envisioned to life." As the colorful look was integral to the piece, Qiu would take stills from greyscale animation and paint the frame to provide color direction throughout the production. Using the techniques they developed with Qiu, the CG team added final color and lighting throughout the piece. Maxon executives (le to right, top to bottom): McGavran, Bruckert, Häfner, Babb, Losch, Jancke, Meiseberg and Bonoff. Artists relied on Studio Max, Nuke, Maya and Creative Suite. The What is Time project.