Engine Creative - The University of Northampton

Mission Video made in CINEMA 4D plays on UK's leading five-sided high-definition ActiveCube

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Known around the world for its expertise in areas such as waste management, leather technology and fashion, the University of Northampton also has something to make most 3D artists drool. If you like the idea of rendering your animations using 512 cores, interacting with your 3D scenes inside a five-sided (3.2m x 2.4m) 3D stereo projected ActiveCube or watching your animations on a 6m 3D stereo projected ActiveWall, then the university's world-class NVision technology center is quite simply amazing and was made possible with £2.5m support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

One of the animations on show inside the magnificent ActiveCube is the new University of Northampton mission video, 'Revealed,' made by Engine Creative using CINEMA 4D.

Available online and used in university presentations, 'Revealed' is an engaging animation that communicates the multitude of positive effects that the University of Northampton has on the local community and the world. The video cites the university as a catalyst for change, a center for innovation and the beating heart of progress in the region.

"We storyboarded, scripted, produced and created 'Revealed' entirely in-house, including the animation in CINEMA 4D," says Matt Key, Managing Director at Engine.

"We used CINEMA 4D's extensive, powerful and flexible MoGraph tools, including Plane effectors and Delay effectors to flip the tiles over that you see in the video."

The challenge for the mission video was to condense the achievements and aspirations of the thriving university into an engaging animation. "It was clear that we needed to communicate the diversity and scope of activity in a succinct and memorable way to different target audiences," says Matt. With the art direction calling for a clean, bright and graphical execution, Engine Creative opted to use a sky dome inside CINEMA 4D together with ambient occlusion for the lighting. No light objects were used!

Engine used CS Tools for all the camera work (including camera rigs, Mocam, easy cams, docu cam, etc.) and to animate the movements of the bee in the scene. In terms of workflow, CINEMA 4D's XRefs helped speed things up by removing bottlenecks associated with team projects. Matt explains: "We used a lot of XRefs, which is an incredibly efficient way of working. We could create each item in the scene initially as a low-res placeholder and save it as an XRef. While one member of the team animated the camera moves and controlled the whole scene, other team members could continue to work on the XRefs, modeling the high-res objects without holding up the production."

Render-wise, this project was something of a dream come true: Engine Creative partnered with the state of the art NVision facility to use their suite as a 512-core render farm for 'Revealed.' With 512 cores slashing the amount of time that would be needed for rendering, the team at Engine Creative was able to spend more time on research and development at the start of the project. Matt sums up: "Our 3D animated mission video sets the scene for creating a strong and positive voice for the university brand across all communications; one that celebrates success, and enables individuals and organizations to achieve their aspirations in a supportive and personable environment."

About Engine Creative
Engine Creative is an award-winning, independent creative agency that helps forward thinking brands and organizations engage with and build their audience. We are commercially driven and focus on excellence with impact. We have implemented creative strategies for: The University of Northampton, Toyo Tires Europe and N-Dubz. We have provided digital marketing expertise for: Tesco, Next and Viking.
We have built global brands for: Universal Music, Ministry of Sound and Renaissance. We have created engaging and award-winning content for: BBC Worldwide, Kaplan and WRAP. We focus on superb creative output to make great things happen.

More of Engine Creative's 3D, CGI & animation work:
http://www.enginecreative.co.uk/portfolio-tags/3d-cgi