Standard Life’s headquarters in Edinburgh was to undergo some interior design changes and this animation, showing a part of the building’s first floor, would help to visualise them. To ensure accuracy, I was given the architect’s plans for the building as reference. Even the carpet was ‘sampled’ from a photograph of the original.
Standard Life were using a marbles theme throughout their printed literature and the natural extension of this was to animate them, to keep their branding consistent across all media. This 3d animation was used in their corporate broadcasting but also looped to create a very effective screensaver.
This virtual set had a two-fold purpose. Primarily it was to show the client Experian how the various set elements would look in an artificially lit space. Secondarily it would show how the space would be shared with their co-exhibitor Quadro.
Professional mad scientist Dr. Bunhead is a regular contributor to BBC children’s programmes. I used his own hand-drawn self-portrait and just had some fun with it. Although it looks like traditional animation, this was actually created in a 3d programme, and really shows just how versatile 3d design can be.
3d Accident reconstruction is becoming a very useful tool in legal circles. This scene is an actual road traffic accident case study which was brought to me to recreate. There are two sides to every story but this animation shows just one side of this particular case from a number of different camera angles. It was a major help in building a convincing case for the client.
Check-In was one of NatWest’s regular corporate broadcast programmes. It was important that it felt like a current affairs programme, so I took the footage within this 3d design title sequence from the body of each month’s show. This meant not only that the titles felt more localised but they also never got a chance to appear staid, even after a year’s worth of shows.
The Ingenico set formed part of a trade fair event and was built around a portable bar with plasma screen and computer pod workstations. Part of the beauty of being able to lay out a set in 3d is that it allows clients to be able to visualise all the elements in one place, lit as they would be, and with all their branding incorporated as it would be at the actual event.
The EICC is a regular Scottish venue for events such as this one. This was a case where the client needed to see how the space would look with all the branding elements in place. They also wanted to contruct a false wall at the entrance of the main foyer area, which had cost and lighting implications. These are things best visualised with 3d design before spending a lot of money.
I produced this award-winning documentary for the Discovery Channel. The programme covered 3000 years of history, so the archer in the titles had to appear reasonably generic. I thought lightning would add a nice touch of drama so I shot blacked-out studio footage of the archer and then blended in the stock weather shots without having to use blue screen.
Sometimes there is no source footage or other materials to work with and you have to just conjure something up. 3d Graphics can be interesting and entertaining on their own and can also be a very cost effective option. This 3d design was a fairly simple solution to the problem of how to represent fishing without filming or actually trying to realistically represent fish.
I'm Greg Moodie, a freelance graphic designer and SEO consultant based in West Lothian, just outside Edinburgh in Scotland. Trading as Funhouse Graphics since 1998, I specialise in 3d animation and search engine marketing for websites.
