CG-Integrated Web Films with Photorealistic Animations Explore the 2011 Ford Super Duty Engine

(January xx, 2010) — 3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape is in the business of defying physics. The equation? CG-based technology expertise.

Team Detroit called on the talents of Speedshape to contribute to the “Powertrain Demos,” a series of five CG-integrated technical web films for the 2011 Ford Super Duty truck. Commissioned in conjunction with Ford’s latest ad campaign via Team Detroit, the web films aim to tell a deeper story about the about the mechanics of Ford’s workhorse truck, with CG demos of its new features and enhancements. Led by Speedshape CGI Supervisors Linden Vennard and Roger Prudden, Speedshape created photorealistic animations of the 2011 Ford Super Duty, including all Powertrain/engine components, taking viewers well beyond where any camera could ever maneuver.

To view the “Powertrain Demos,” please go to: http://www.fordvehicles.com/2011Superduty

Speedshape facilitated the detailed explorations of the Super Duty’s signature inner workings by integrating CG elements and live action footage. Each web film features 100% CG vehicles (and trailers) operating in live-action environments — one, even, utilizes a 100% CG environment – as all five demos show the versatile Ford Super Duty pulling its load in an array of settings, before seamlessly morphing into uncanny animations of the truck’s engine in action. The “all-new” features highlighted include: 6R Transmission; 6.7L “Scorpion” Power Stroke® Diesel; Power Take Off; 6.2L V8 Gas Engine; and Center-Mounted Turbocharger.

Speedshape worked closely with the Ford Engineering and Team Detroit to animate the Super Duty’s “all-new” features. Utilizing their in-house automotive pipeline to push through a massive amount of data, Speedshape was able to render the assets efficiently and seamlessly.

“The Super Duty customer is a “no-nonsense” kind of guy,” states Daniel Przekop, SVP | Creative Director | Team Detroit. He wants his information concise, beneficial and believable. Speedshape was able to help us create demos that take complicated engineering and make it easy to understand for the layman. And the realism of the renderings adds to the believability of the demonstrations making the feature claims more impactful. In fact, early analytics show that the ‘Powertrain Demos’ is the content most accessed and viewed by customers on the Super Duty website.”

Speedshape involved Ford Engineering consultation early on in the development of the CG components. This strategy promotes unparalleled emphasis on accuracy.

“It was truly a pleasure to be a part of this project,” says Speedshape CGI Supervisor Linden Vennard. “Working closely with the Ford Engineers and the creative team at Team Detroit enabled this CG-intensive job to go remarkably smooth, especially given our time frame.”

Vennard also attributes the success of the CG-intensive job to the creative freedom Speedshape was allotted. “Team Detroit allowed us a lot of creative input, which helped us create a very dynamic piece and still tell the Super Duty story,” concludes Vennard.

Agency: TEAM DETROIT
Producer: ANDY AYRAULT
Creative Director: DAN PRZEKOP
Associate Creative Director: BARRY COLE
Art Buyer: KIM HARRIS
Copywriter: PETER LEVIN

Production Company: SPEEDSHAPE
Account Director: SCOTT SUSALLA
Producer: TINA HYNOUS
CG Supervisor: LINDEN VENNARD

Detroit, MI & Venice, CA – (October 12, 2009) – At the helm of creating a “community” customizer for the 2010 Ford Mustang, Team Detroit/ Wunderman turned to 3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape to generate the interactive site’s digital assets. With an array of pristine 3D renderings generated by Speedshape, the community customizer engages potential customers by inviting them to customize the all-new Mustang to their liking. The luminous experience was integral to engaging browsers and Mustang enthusiast alike, as the community customizer yielded record user-engagement on the Yahoo! Homepage and Ford websites, respectively, as well as social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Starting at the Yahoo! Homepage, browsers are first engaged with five categories of customization (color, decal, grille, wheels and smoke) in real-time, before being invited to continue the experience, with all 18 categories of customization available on the official Ford website. The customized Mustangs can then be saved on the user’s desktop. But the experience doesn’t stop here. Users can also showcase their supped-up rides in Ford’s “Gallery” homepage, which encourages fellow car fans to rate and judge, as well as qualify for the “This Week’s Best.” Additionally, the customizations seamlessly link to popular social media sites Twitter and Facebook for added sharing.

The analytics of the Homepage takeover (provided by Yahoo) reveal unprecedented browser-engagement, including the most interactions on Yahoo for any advertiser ever: click-through rates earned the highest FLM (Ford, Lincoln and Mercury) rate to date; unique KBA’s (Key Buying Activity) were the highest number ever driven by any home page unit across all brands; and, moreover, it was the lowest cost per KBA of any rich media home page unit for FLM.

According to Team Detroit, nearly half of all users who expanded the unit spent at least 2 minutes or more customizing their Mustang on Yahoo! Not too mention, the industry buzz the customizer generated across social media platforms.

“In light of the analytics, this is an exciting story,” comments Scott Susalla, Speedshape VP of Sales. “I’ve been a big-time proponent of digitally repurposing assets for years; it’s exciting to see its advantages come to fruition – agencies are finally tapping into the trend and end-clients are seeing results and reaping the invaluable benefits of engaging with their customers and fans alike.”

Contributing to the versatile customizer, the Speedshape team worked with a variety of assets, including: Ford OEM assets, Ford racing accessories, and aftermarket accessories (3D carbon, DUB).  This enabled the development of the engaging Yahoo! Homepage, which creates an extended media presence in traditional placements for the 2010 Ford Mustang.

“It’s rewarding to help bring our client’s online advertising to the next level,” says Speedshape’s Corey Brent. “We worked closely with Team Detroit to create something that would truly engage the targeted marketplace and, along the way, worked with really great assets. This is a perfect example of the effectiveness of interactive media in the realm online advertising.”

Credits:

Clients:
Yahoo
Ford Motor Company

Agency: Wunderman/Team Detroit
Group Creative Director: Stuart O’Neil
Creative Director /Copywriter: Sue Driscoll
Associate Creative Director: James Robinson
Associate Creative Director: Jennifer Powers
Group Account Director: Joe Karle
Account Director: Melissa Behring
Assoc. Director Technology, VP – Ford Brand: Nathaniel Bishop
Tech Lead: Chad Datillio
Program Manager: Amy Daneke
Project Manager: Bill Peters
Strategist: Jennifer TooleWu
Information Architect: Maureen Honore

3D Digital Production Studio: Speedshape
CG Vehicle TD – Micheal Risse
CG Compositor – Doug Hogan
Interactive Creative Director – Corey Brent
Producer – Joan DiSalvo
Scott Susalla- VP Sales
Josh Hamman – Interactive Developer

Flash Design Studio: Firstborn

Detroit & Venice, CA – (August 3, 2009) – The creative team at Speedshape — a 3D integrated digital studio — has partnered with the Chaos Group, creators of V-Ray rendering technology for the 2009 Siggraph Convention. Speedshape provided a series of project assets to Chaos Group Team for use on the company’s reel at the 36th International Siggraph Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics, and Interactive Techniques, being held this week in New Orleans, August 3-7.

Projects provided to Chaos Group by Speedshape include motion pieces for Saab, Mustang, Navistar, and Camaro, as well as portions of print campaigns for Navistar, Mustang and Camaro. All assets provided to Chaos Group were created by the Speedshape team using V-Ray state-of-the-art rendering solutions.

Saab AWD Tradeshow Demo
2010 Ford Mustang Pre-Launch Microsite
2010 Chevy Camaro Launch Site
2010 Chevy Camaro Configurator
Lonestar Harley-Davidsion Special Edition

“V-Ray, V-Ray RT, and Pdplayer are indispensible tools in our studio,” says Speedshape’s Director of Software Engineering James Vecore. “V-Ray is still the best renderer on the market for producing photo-real imagery and it gets better with every release. V-Ray RT for 3ds Max has revolutionized our 3D workflow by turning the slow iterative process of lighting and test renders into a simple real-time feedback loop. Pdplayer is an amazing lightweight frame viewer that we utilize every day. When combined, these tools are unstoppable.”

“We’re delighted that Speedshape has selected the V-Ray Rendering solutions,” adds Peter Mitev, CEO of Chaos Group. “Presently rendering technology provided by Chaos Group is an integral part of the studio’s 3D production workflow since the capabilities of the V-Ray rendering engine are best suited to their needs. We are very pleased that in our SIGGRAPH 2009 Show Reel will be seen remarkable pieces of commercial broadcast design created by the Speedshape team using V-Ray. ”

The Speedshape team’s use of V-Ray rending solutions was also highlighted recently by Chaos Group on their web site. To read an interview with Speedshape VFX Supervisor Linden Vennard and Director of Software Engineering at Speedshape, James Vecore, go to:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/envyspot.html?i=5

To view the Chaos Group’s Exhibition Booth (#3119) Presentation Schedule at Siggraph 09, go to:
http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/sig2009.html

About Speedshape:
3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape specializes in helming creative content for commercial, broadcast design, interactive and print campaigns for a diverse line-up of clients including AT&T, Camaro, Knoll, Ford, SAAB, Fox Sports, and Michelin, among others. Speedshape enjoys strategic partnerships with Microsoft and HP, to name just a few. With a production model defined by simplicity, creativity, and flexibility, Speedshape can seamlessly insert creative content into existing campaigns, or come up with a big idea that will leverage all the company strengths into an effective, dynamic, and integrated effort. www.speedshape.com

About Chaos Group:
Chaos Group provides state of the art rendering solutions for architectural, VFX, film, media and entertainment, automotive design, television and other industries. Chaos Group started its business in 1997 with establishing a CG production studio for 3D design and animation services. After creating V-Ray render engine in 2002 Chaos Group dedicated its efforts on development and global distribution of rendering solutions for 3D visualization through its daughter company – Chaos Software. The professional expertise and experience of Chaos Software team and the feedback provided by our customers forged V-Ray into what it is today – trendsetting rendering technology. V-Ray became rendering solution of choice for many 3D production houses due to its capability to deliver high quality photorealistic images in the shortest time. In June 2009 Chaos Group officially released V-Ray RT – the first interactive renderer of it’s kind for 3ds Max. The power of this interactive raytracing technology changes the way 3D artists and visualization specialists approach the lighting and shading setup. Now they can use the V-Ray RT intuitive, time saving and highly interactive features to completely enjoy the creative side of the rendering process. Our portfolio includes the following outstanding products: V-Ray for Autodesk®3ds Max®, V-Ray RT for Autodesk®3ds Max®, V-Ray for Autodesk® Maya®, SimCloth, and Pdplayer – the production oriented image sequence player and viewer for the CG industry. 

Chaos Group provides software solutions and high standards of support worldwide through its network of more than 120 distributors and resellers. For additional information about Chaos Group, please visit www.chaosgroup.com

Autodesk, 3ds Max and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. V-Ray is a registered trademark of Chaos Software in Bulgaria and other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Detroit & Venice, CA – (July 13, 2009) – The creative team at Speedshape, a 3D integrated digital studio, has created a Configurator for a Knoll microsite and the company’s new “Generation by Knoll™” desk chair. Created completely in CG and based on CAD data, photos and material reference provided by the client, Speedshape worked in conjunction with ad agency Fathom and Knoll product specialists to ensure the CG chair was up to date with the physical chair as it went through production.

The Generation by Knoll™ chair is a revolutionary new model of desk chair. Available in a host of colors, including Lemongrass, the new chair offers flexibility, allowing people to sit sideways or even backwards. The chair features the Knoll Flex Back, Flex Top and Flex Seat technology, combined with Dynamic Suspension Control: allowing users to “Sit How You Want.”

For the team at Speedshape, this exciting project for Knoll entailed the programming of CG assets to create the Generation by Knoll™ Configurator. Users can customize their chair via various options within the “Demo” section of the site, as well as utilize the “Save to PDF” function. Speedshape created the “Demo” site layout in AS3 and Flash based on client-provided comps. Additionally, Speedshape provided technical assistance and consulting on site functionality.

“This is a perfect case study of what makes CG assets so valuable,” adds Mike Ward, Speedshape’s CG Supervisor. “The ability to visualize hundreds, if not thousands of product configurations is completely impractical to pull off traditionally. It gives the customers control as to what their purchases look like. Also, the assets that Speedshape creates holistically can be leveraged for other areas such as rich media units, touch screen, etc.”

Credits:
Digital Production Studio: Speedshape/Detroit & Venice
CG Supervisor: Mike Ward
Interactive Developer: Josh Hamman
Interactive Designer: Eric Bookout
Technical Directors: Jared Tripp, Dave Grey
Director Interactive: Corey Brent
Digital Artists: Jessica Morrison, Matthew Cash, Rob Braithwaite
Flash Developer: Norm McGarry
Producers: Dawn Giddings, Joel Park
Account Manager: Tiffany Krajewski

About Speedshape:
3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape specializes in helming creative content for commercial, broadcast design, interactive and print campaigns for a diverse line-up of clients including Ford, SAAB, Fox Sports, and Michelin, among others. Speedshape enjoys strategic partnerships with Microsoft and HP, to name just a few. With a production model defined by simplicity, creativity, and flexibility, Speedshape can seamlessly insert creative content into existing campaigns, or come up with a big idea that will leverage all the company strengths into an effective, dynamic, and integrated effort.

Birmingham, MI & Venice, CA – (June 10, 2009) — 3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape recently teamed with ad agency Campbell-Ewald to produce an interactive website for marketing and showcasing the all-new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The site allows customers to custom-build their dream Camaro, virtually, with up-to-the-minute pricing and specialized product configuration, providing the ultimate online car-shopping experience.

Essential to the Camaro website’s user-friendly, interactive elements was Speedshape’s custom-built product configurator engine. Based on thousand of optimized components, the configurator engine yielded the site’s + 50 million unique images, providing comprehensive specs for the 2010 Camaro including 5 trim choices, 10 colors and 17 additional accessories (all viewable in three different angles).

Campbell-Ewald approached Speedshape with the goal of creating an interactive website that exuded design and function parallel to the Camaro’s own sleek artistry and craft; moreover, market to Chevrolet clientele through a seamless, interactive user-experience while enhancing Chevrolet’s ability to effectively commerce.

Considering Campbell-Ewald’s needs, Speedshape opted to use their patent pending, flexible and scaleable configurator engine for a fast to market solution — a solution beneficial to both the end-client Chevrolet and its clientele.

“A simplified product configurator engine is an essential business tool for selling any configured product,” says Speedshape’s VP of Production, Anthony Salinas. “Firstly, it empowers the customer with a very hands-on, visually-driven shopping experience, with perks like up-to-the-minute product specs, rapid quotes and proposals, to name a few.”

The solution to custom-build a flexible, scaleable product configurator, however, presented Speedshape with a unique challenge in itself: “Specialized configurator engines can be especially complex and costly to build and maintain — and must be built with precision; otherwise, you run the risk of creating a slow and cumbersome user experience,” adds Salinas.

With robust creativity, product knowledge, and leading edge programming, Speedshape was able to deliver a cost-effective configurator experience, while addressing all the complexities they come with. The key, according to Speedshape, is to have flexible code that can be easily modified for client requirements.

The configurator engine, by design, maximized Speedshape’s creative capabilities and streamlined the production process. The simplified product configurator engine handles hi-rez visuals; it facilitates all the desired flexibility, configuring colors, accessories and meta data; it requires no additional hardware or special software; and, finally, it offers flexibility and scalability, with low-cost long-term maintenance well beyond the product launch.

The Camaro Project exemplifies Speedshape’s all-encompassing expertise in enhancing its client’s digital marketing capabilities — no matter the project’s size or scope. By creating the specialized configurator engine, Speedshape served the premise for not only a successful collaboration, but also a functional and sleek web interface.

“This was a three-tiered execution, from the creative to product knowledge to programming,” concludes Salinas. “We’re excited to have created a configurator-engine that can be used for virtually any product. An added advantage to what we’ve created is definitely our ability to streamline the collaborative process. By implementing our custom-built configurator engine we could also provide both the agency and end-client Chevrolet a lot of creative flexibility and piece-of-mind, as all the visual content and interfaces could be viewed directly on our web-based engine.”

3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape specializes in helming creative content for commercial, broadcast design, interactive and print campaigns for a diverse line-up of clients including Ford, SAAB, Fox Sports, and Michelin, among others. Speedshape enjoys strategic partnerships with Microsoft and HP, to name just a few. With a production model defined by simplicity, creativity, and flexibility, Speedshape can seamlessly insert creative content into existing campaigns, or come up with a big idea that will leverage all the company strengths into an effective, dynamic, and integrated effort.

www.speedshape.com

Detroit & Venice, CA – (June 3, 2009) – 3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape recently teamed up with Grey New York to complete an impressive, 12-spot campaign for E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. Rendering a myriad of design elements, Speedshape delivered dazzling imagery, highlighting E*TRADE’s latest on-line tools and features, while affirming E*TRADE’s position as a leading online financial service company. Speedshape’s all-encompassing design and production for the campaign included design, previz, editorial, 2D and 3D animation, CG composting, color finishing, as well as shooting all the live-action elements.

The principal “asset” driving the impressive HD spots is a monumental 3D-monitor wall, where subjects seamlessly navigate cutting-edge web features with the touch of the hand, as iconic E*TRADE imagery animates on-screen.

To view the campaign, click the following Quicktime movie links:

E*Trade “Active Trader” :30

E*Trade “Pre-Retirement” :30

E*Trade “Investing Control” :30

Speedshape was given the challenging task to reproduce web content visually identical to E*TRADE web interfaces. Considering much of this content was not available in high-resolution for HD production, Speedshape meticulously re-created, animated and integrated each E*TRADE web page and its graphical elements; moreover, they rendered much of the web elements and tools with 2D enhancements, giving prominence to new and attractive functions, including E*TRADE Securities’ Power E*TRADE Pro tools.

Inherent in the campaign’s success was Speedshape’s involvement early on, from design concept-development to execution, which included providing Grey New York with numerous options in terms of models, lighting and environments.

Much of pre-production was handled off-site, at Grey in New York. “We brought a previs and Avid system and set up at the agency,” explains Speedshape’s Director of Creative Services Carl Seibert. “Over the course of five days, we created low-rez scenes using the approved 3D model and graphical placeholders that were either lifted from the website, provided by the agency or built from scratch.”

Speedshape designed, modeled, textured and lit the CG monitor wall in a virtual 3D studio environment, which allowed for unlimited variations and combinations of camera moves to be explored and created for each spot. Allowing more wide-range flexibility, the CG wall of monitors could be repurposed in all four spots, with each individual monitor, as rigged, offering multiple movements and actions, creating unique and stand-alone visual experiences with each spot.

“Our success in realizing this campaign is rooted in a symbiotic process nurtured by our production teams at Grey and E*TRADE,” adds Speedshape’s Seibert. “We had interactive jam sessions with all the players present, determining the style of the camera moves and the editorial pacing of the previz – this process proved to be very helpful in allowing us to accommodate, especially with a very tight delivery schedule.”

Speedshape also produced the campaign’s live-action elements, using RED and SONY digital cameras. Showcasing their mobile production capabilities, live-action shoots took place at both an offsite green screen stage and at their production facility in Venice. To maintain their delivery schedule and offer flexibility to both the agency and end-client, Speedshape implemented a live-action pipeline that allowed new or additional footage to be easily inserted into each spot. This preparation proved to be worthy, making any augmentation in creative direction – even mid-production – viable.

Carl Seibert expounds on the process: “With ‘Investing Control,’ it was communicated during production that we needed to accommodate brand-new features on the E*TRADE website. We successfully facilitated this crucial deviation in creative direction, with a cost-effective re-shoot, and easily ingested the new footage,” he concludes.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: GREY/New York
Director of Broadcast production: Bennett McCarroll
Art Director: Doug Schommer
Creative Director: Paul Behnen
Producer: Keira Rosenthal

Digital Production Studio: SPEEDSHAPE/Venice & Detroit
Creative Director – John Allardice
Creative Director – Carl Seibert
VFX Supervisor – Connor Meechan
Executive Producer – Carl Seibert
Producer – Jamison Huber
Previsualization – John Allardice
Previsualization – Connor Meechan
Texture and Lighting – Marko Mandaric
Texture and Lighting – Hagen Gilbert
3D – Hagen Gilbert
3D – Marko Mandaric
3D – Ilya Astrakhan
2D/Animation – Nicholas Alexander
2D/Animation – Connor Meechan
2D/Compsiting – Dag Ivarsoy
2D/Compositing – Brady Doyle
Editorial – Nicholas Alexander

Music for Active Trader: The Boss Martians
Music all other Spots: Human Music and Sound Design
Audio Post/mixer: Vision Post/Dante Desole

About Speedshape:
3D integrated digital production studio Speedshape specializes in helming creative content for commercial, broadcast design, interactive and print campaigns for a diverse line-up of clients including Ford, SAAB, Fox Sports, and Michelin, among others. Speedshape enjoys strategic partnerships with Microsoft and HP, to name just a few. With a production model defined by simplicity, creativity, and flexibility, Speedshape can seamlessly insert creative content into existing campaigns, or come up with a big idea that will leverage all the company strengths into an effective, dynamic, and integrated effort.

www.speedshape.com