This is a screengrab from SimVenture, the award-winning business simulation game which teaches business skills to budding entrepreneurs. I was asked to create the 3d environment for the game’s interface where each of the main items in the room links to a particular area of the player’s hypothetical business.
My first attempts were described by the client as ‘not messy enough,’ so I tried to make it look more like a home-based start-up, complete with clutter.
It’s a static environment at the moment, but as it was designed in 3d, the next stage of the game would build in an animated interface.
For a free demo of the game visit the SimVenture website.
This ambient piece was projected onto a large wall space and ran on a loop throughout Visit Scotland’s Expo Fusion event. It’s purpose was two-fold. First it would welcome guests - who were from all corners of the globe and hence the multilingual ‘welcome’ - and second it would act as directional signage, indicating what was to be found on the floors above and below.
The unusual brief, described to me as ‘a bit like the old pingpong computer game,’ also called for the inclusion of the sponsor, Glasgow: Scotland With Style. This had me foxed until we put them on the ball itself.
Scotland At The Movies was a one-off documentary made by STV and broadcast at peak time on March 22nd 2009. The programme focused on four Scottish films: Gregory’s Girl, Whisky Galore!, Heavenly Pursuits, and Comfort and Joy, and featured interviews with Bill Forsyth, Claire Grogan, Tom Conti and Bill Paterson.
I used the pop-up technique for this title sequence, taking all the promo stills I was given and cutting them up to form an animated collage.
This is an excerpt from LA Media’s excellent corporate presentation for the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. At one point in the script there was a need to show the centre’s close proximity to all Edinburgh’s main landmarks and most thriving tourist spots, so I was asked to create this whirlwind tour of the city. In terms of geography, it’s actually reasonably accurate!
To close the presentation I created the fairly simple but effective animation of the EICC logo with it’s square-set forms and letters.
This presentation piece for Visit Scotland uses three different animation techniques for the three individual areas I was asked to cover: the fluttering ident, the landscape text, and the names that form into words. (These are the names of Visit Scotland employees.)
Each section was created with 3d animation and each brought it’s own challenges. But I have to admit there was something quite satisfying about making that text run along the top of the bridges.
I was the senior designer on the PBS documentary series ‘Battlefield Vietnam’ which took two years to make and was finally released in 1998. The series was commissioned on the back of the original Second World War series ‘Battlefield’ which we - I was a freelancer working for Lamancha Productions in Edinburgh Scotland - had previously made between 1994-96.
For anyone interested in a little web history, you can find the original website I created for TimeLife Video in 1999 here at Battlefield Vietnam.
The series was a major technical challenge for me as each of the twelve one-hour long episodes had a large number of graphics all of which required rendering - a big deal in those days. So even the logistics involved were tricky. On top of that we had to make sense of most of the major battles fought during the ‘10,000 day war’ and illustrate troop movements and guerilla warfare. Just to give an idea of the level of detail required by the producer Dave Flitton, some of the fighting was done on individual neighbouring hills, each of which had to be accurate in relative scale and be named according to original sources.
The Khe Sanh episodes involved such extremes of scale in the maps, going from the whole of South East Asia to being able to see details of the base itself within the same graphic, that we made maps within maps within maps. It probably doesn’t sound much now but all the graphics were done on a couple of very early Pentiums. Wow it’s got a 2gb hard disk, I thought.
In directing this documentary for TG4 in Ireland, I used extensive 3d graphics because of the abstract nature of the subject. I had to find lots of tricks and techniques to bring the story to life without spending millions. “A fantastic, richly illustrated documentary” - Dublin Evening News.
This 3d animation formed the backdrop to a corporate awards ceremony held in Lisbon. The client was looking for a lifestyle piece that would provide an overall theme for the event and give a chilled out tone to the proceedings. I used these 2d illustrations and placed them in a 3d environment, adding some specifically 3d design tricks such as pool reflections and mirrorball lighting.
This travelling exhibition hall - the EventStation® Plus by Bacon Inflate - is manufactured using PVC-coated high-performance fabric. A vinyl canopy is then tensioned over the top. This 3d animation was able to show the client Johnnie Walker exactly how their branding and exhibits would look - day and night - within their own custom made version.
Corporate broadcasting is becoming increasingly viable over the internet, and businesses are now waking up to the online possibilities for video. Having worked in television and been a seasoned web designer, bringing the two sides together was a natural progression. For this piece of web video by LA Media, I was brought in to assemble all the video elements and help to integrate it with the Scottish Power website.
I'm Greg Moodie and I've been making things look good since 1993. Whether it's 3d design and animation, television graphics, web design or corporate presentations, “Funhouse Graphics will add value to your business."
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