Computer Graphics World

March 2009 38 n n n n Design e same attention to detail and plan- ning also extends to the game commenta- tors. While the banter and statements made by these reporters are loosely scripted at best, they come prepared, having done a great deal of homework—memorizing the stats for every player and poring over hours of game film for "spur-of-the-moment" analysis on the teams and the individuals. And when the commentators take their seats behind the on-air desk, the last thing they want to en- counter are any last-minute surprises. At Super Bowl XLIII, there were none. e announcers fit comfortably in the al- lotted space, the lighting was perfect, and the graphics and monitors ideally placed. at's because every light and object was carefully planned and tested virtually using computer graphics prior to fabrication and on-site setup. "By planning it all out first in CG, the client knows exactly what they are going to get. ey can see it. We can see it. It is such a huge time-saver," says Nate Mitchell, graph- ics supervisor at Innovative Show Design (ISD), a design firm specializing in scenic and lighting services for television produc- tions, corporate events, and live theater. For Super Bowl XLIII, ISD created four on-air positions for the NBC commenta- tors that were situated within three sets used for the pre-show coverage. e main set—aboard the pirate ship located within the Buccaneer Cove at the north end of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's Raymond James Stadium—was used for post-game and half- time reports, as well. e Super Suite, a "red carpet" area, was used as the position for e Today Show's Al Roker to interview celebrity guests, such as Kevin James and the crew of e Fast and the Furious. e third set housed two positions in the NFL Experience area. At ground level was the Top Chef seg- ment, where two teams competed in a grill- ing cook-off. Elevated behind this, with the distant stadium as the backdrop, was where Keith Olberman chatted with NFL greats Tiki Barber and Jerome Bettis. Advance Team According to Mitchell, ISD has built many sets for on-air poker tournaments, as well as those for mixed martial-arts events and last month's Speed Week at the Daytona 500. Yet, prior to the clash between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardi- nals, ISD had never been recruited to do a football game. So, what made NBC hire a newcomer to football for such a major event? "We have worked with NBC in the past. And we are able to show them exactly what they were going to get before we be- gan building it. e CG animation was a big selling point, particularly with a project of this size," says Mitchell. For this event, NBC provided the design group with parameters. e network want- ed the main desk to be aboard the ship and resemble a set that had already been used, although with a different flare to it. e focus of the Super Suite was to be art deco/ theater-esque. Following this directive, the group designed the sets, rendered them out, and presented them to NBC. First, ISD's artistic director/president, Chris Runnells, created the designs using Nemetschek North America's Vectorworks CAD software, which provided the neces- sary precision. en, he sent the files to Maxon's Cinema 4D, where Mitchell and Mark Dowling added textures and light- ing, as well as animation treatments. "e lighting is where it can get very ex- tensive," says Mitchell. "We are a scenic and lighting firm, so during the initial process, Justin Garrone, our lighting designer/as- sociate artistic director, sits down with me or Dowling and [we review] the lighting plot he created. Garrone shares his vision with us, and we'll mimic that in Cinema 4D, down to the color temperatures and intensities of the lighting fixtures. We even have a library of moving lights, powered by [Cinema 4D's] Xpresso, that are true to life. ese have the same specifications as the ac- tual fixtures, even the rotation abilities are the same. By using true attributes, we show the client exactly what is possible; there is no movie magic applied to add more spice." Along with Maxon, the designers also use ESP's Vision, previsualization software for customized lighting scenarios. "We can sit in front of the computer and previsualize our entire show," adds Mitchell, "which means we can write all our lighting cues without ever being in front of the stage. It is all done ahead of time. We just take it to the [venue] site, plug it into the console, and as long as the rig is hung the same way we designed it, the lighting is 99.99 percent accurate." On the pirate ship, there was not a lot of room; it's a tiny deck, recalls Mitchell. "So we took a camera in Cinema 4D, copied over some attributes of a real camera, and showed it to NBC: 'is is how your desk would be placed, and this is what the shots would look like,' " he says. "Instead of tak- ing up a lot of time on site trying to situate the desk with the cameras and [trappings], they already knew what kind of shots they were going to get with this design." ISD, which is in the game of designing sets for major televised events, uses Maxon's Cinema 4D, along with other software, to test various scenarios for optimal results.

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