Advert for Wacom’s Magic Wand

Wacom’s Inkling is causing quite a stir and CINEMA 4D shows what this little squirt is capable of!

Those who have kept an eye on developments in the field of digital input devices have more than likely stumbled across Wacom's most recent device: the Inkling. The Inkling is a pen that is equipped with a transmitter that captures movements made on paper and transmits them to its own storage device where these movements are processed into corresponding digital images. This device is ideal for all traditional artists who have not yet warmed up to the idea of working with touch tablets.

Far in advance of its actual release, the Inkling was highly anticipated and the subject of much speculation. Wacom decided to create a series of videos to illustrate the Inkling's finer features and communicate this online. These videos were to serve as both a marketing tool and as tutorials. This was a complex task that Wacom wanted to solve using clear and concise design. The animations had to literally follow the right line.

But the videos had to begin with something other than animated line drawings, especially the main introductory film. The main film had to demonstrate how artists have the freedom to use the Inkling anywhere they want. This was done using a rapid succession of working surfaces on each of which the same block with the same Inkling and the same pair of hands appear. When the hands begin to draw, the video cuts to a drawn version of the same view and explains how this works.
Robert Hranitzky and Akira Endo were given the job of completing this project as well as creating several tutorial videos for the Inkling. Before they started with the trailer, they created objects for the packaging design. "I lit the scene with the GSG LightKit Pro and re-created a studio environment", remarks Robert. “The images were rendered using the CINEMA 4D renderer.“

Work on the marketing trailer was much more elaborate than on the packaging images. Here, the duo had many live scenes that had to be composited and various scenes had to be color matched. In addition, the Inkling had to be added as a virtual element to several scenes. Akira converted the CAD models to CINEMA 4D format so they could be used in the animations.

During the work on the six tutorial videos that followed, the Inkling model was used extensively and two more artists, Max Iglesias and Diana Eglseder, were added to the creative team. The videos span a total of almost ten minutes and describe in detail how the Inkling works and how to use the software. Each time the Inkling appears in a scene it is a virtual model animated in CINEMA 4D and rendered with CINEMA 4D's Sketch and Toon to achieve the light, "squiggly" outline style that makes the renderings look hand drawn. All in all, the lion’s share of work for this project was done in CINEMA 4D and After Effects. Whenever 2D graphics were needed, Adobe Illustrator was used. These three applications worked perfectly together, in particular the connectivity between CINEMA 4D and After Effects left nothing to be desired.

After viewing the teaser, marketing videos and tutorials for the new Inkling it is clear that a series of videos was created that more than live up to the innovative and fascinating product that they are designed to showcase.

Link to the making of:
http://vimeo.com/28346736

Link to the trailer:
http://vimeo.com/28346340

Website Robert Hranitzky:
http://www.hranitzky.com

Website Akira Endo:
www.akira-endo.com