Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/65907
Machine Shop M othership Director David Rosen- baum teamed with OgilvyWest to tell a simple story about a complex concept in an all-CG commercial "Robotarm" for Cisco. The commercial depicts a cheer- fully aware and somewhat cheeky group of self-sustaining automotive assembly robots as a metaphor for Cisco Intel- ligent Networks that can fix and diagnose themselves. The resulting spot delivers film-caliber computer animation created by Acad- emy Award-winning visual effects studio Digital Domain that is entirely photo- real. "From the beginning, we knew we wanted to use a factory metaphor to tell the story of complex computer systems that can diagnose and fix themselves," says Rosenbaum. "Together with the OgilvyWest team, we took that idea to a new place—doing away with the idea of a traditional assembly line, creating robots with distinct personalities, and bring- ing them closer together so they could interact. In the end, I think we were able to humanize the technology and make it more understandable." Nine unique robots star in the spot, each designed to emulate the look of classic factory machinery enhanced with distinct characteristics. Appropriately synchronized to Gary Numan's "Cars," the robots drill, rivet, screw, weld, and hand body parts off to one another. Though everything was created in CG, Rosenbaum and OgilvyWest co-Chief Creative Officers James Dawson-Hollis and Bill Wright approached the spot as if it were a live-action shoot. Instead of filming with cameras on set, they worked alongside Digital Domain's previs team to frame up shots and work out composi- tions with rough animations, which were then edited and handed over to VFX Supervisor Aladino Debert, who is also a Mothership director, and CG Supervisor Lee Carlton. After evaluating an extensive amount of reference photography from real car plants, Rosenbaum did away with the idea of a traditional assembly line in order 10 April/May 2012 to accommodate the narrative require- ments of the spot, and developed a circu- lar track for placement of the robots. This helped bring the robots closer together to interact according to the spot concept, and also allowed more flexibility in choreographing the robots' movements. With each robot on a circular track, they could hand off parts from one to another and interact more freely without being placed as far apart from one another. Relaying the sophistication of Cisco technology in a 30-second commercial was quite a challenge, especially given the brisk four-week timeline. Digital Domain's exten- sive experience doing car work on both commercials and features meant the studio already had a standard rendering pipeline in place, enabling the group to complete the render-intensive work on time. "The nature of the schedule forced us to work in an unorthodox way on this project," says Debert. "We knew we had to write special tools and, given the timeline, couldn't wait until animation to begin experimenting. Doing look development and modeling while simultaneously animat- ing, lighting, and compositing relied heavily on the technical and artistic prowess of our seasoned team and ability to turn around photoreal rendering very quickly. " The team had to devise special tools to further accelerate the process since the timeline would not allow anything to be left to chance. Historically, Digital Domain creates sparks and smoke using 2D elements whenever possible because the studio maintains a vast library of reference