Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/298092
C G W M a r ch / A p r i l 2 014 ■ 39 Anderson. "So some students were recruited for their 3D and design skills." At first, each student had to come up with a concept and present it to the class, then the students were divided into small groups to further develop the ideas and present them to Fox Sports. After receiving feedback from the client, the students formed three groups, further honing the work before presenting it again to Fox Sports, which selected the design that would receive the students' full attention. Initially, there were two companies bidding on the job alongside SCAD. Early on, however, Fox Sports decided to work only with SCAD. "It was a lot of pressure to know Fox Sports was counting on us, but it was good pressure. We knew we had to succeed," says Anderson, noting this was the first time Fox Sports had used students to work on the all- important Super Bowl production. Anderson believes the students had an advantage going into the challenge that professional companies did not: "We are still in the academic world, and the environment is more fun and creative. We are not bound to strict rules that those in the working world have to follow," she explains. That said, there were guidelines the students had to follow – some absolute, some obvious, some relaxed. For instance, the animation and narrative had to take place in Times Square in celebration of the game's much-discussed cold-weather venue. To this end, the students came up with the idea that Cleatus would burst out of a tunnel of sorts and into a scene of Times Square, which would rotate and morph into part football stadium/part Times Square. Cleatus would then run the foot- ball, which contained the top portion of the Lombardi Trophy, from one end of the "field" to the other and slam the top part of the trophy onto the base. That would set the trophy in mo- tion, which would rise up with the 2014 logo and the number XLVIII, signifying this year's game. "It's only 15 seconds long. That's the hard part. We had to convey a narrative from start to finish, focusing on creative fea- turing Times Square, referencing football, integrating the logo, and making it happen in 15 seconds," says Anderson. "We are storytellers and wanted to start Cleatus's run in Brooklyn, but there was not enough time for that and also be able to highlight all the right elements." Those 15 seconds – of which the students were responsible only for the design, not the actual animation – equated to months of work. To save time, they purchased an existing non- textured digital model of Times Square. "We had to create a lot of the elements, even though Fox was doing the animation, because we needed them for the design and styling," says An- derson. "We had to do the virtual lighting on the city elements we created to see how everything would look." The group used Maxon's Cinema 4D motion graphics soft- ware to create the virtual staging. They also used the software to build other 3D models, such as the Lombardi Trophy. (Cinema 4D has been used in the school's Motion Media Design department for more than a decade and is currently used by the graphics group at Fox Sports.) Later, the students brought the 3D models into Adobe's Photoshop, where they were stylized, color-corrected, and enhanced with lots of detail. In addition, a consultant helped motion- capture a local high school football player, and the movements were imported into Cinema 4D, where the motion-captured and hand-animation data were converted into motion clips using Cin- ema 4D's Motion System. It was then applied to the model of Cleatus from Fox Sports, which came fully rigged but not textured. Making things more difficult from a design standpoint was the uncertainty of which teams (and their colors) would be playing in the Super Bowl, since the project had to be completed in November prior to the play-offs. Also, there were intangibles to consider, such as conveying the feeling of cold to reflect the weather of the outdoor stadium in New Jersey. Class Skills Anderson notes that the students were prepared for the project, thanks to the various classes offered at SCAD. This includes making single still images convey narrative, motion, and aesthetics, for instance, "and that is a real skill," she adds. "We also do a lot of style framing, and we did a lot of that here. It is an important part of what we do. No company wants to say 'Go ahead' on an animation job if they do not like the way it looks." Where the students came up a little short was in their collective knowledge about football. But, two female graphic designers from Georgia provided the right calls. "They were a real asset and really knew their stuff!" Anderson says. Also, to- ward the end of the quarter, the professor decided to give the students a crash course in football and football terminology by ■ SCAD STUDENTS integrated numerous disciplines into the design of the Super Bowl introduction. Here, they do motion capture that was later applied to the main character.