When Ink Project’s concept called for ‘Grandeur and Magic’ to bring to life Foxtel’s Olympic branding the company brought on board Cutting Edge to bring this idea to life for an opener and four idents.

Giant athletes were carved from ice and thrust into a snow-capped domain where they could flex chiseled muscles and tear up the slopes.

Live action footage gave the Cutting Edge 3D team the reference it needed to create the 3D characters by hand. After rigging the characters and rotoscoping the background, it was time to rotoscope the character animation then keyframe everything to free up the action and enable more dynamic camera moves.

The athletes shatter records and themselves, the shards of ice ripping through the air and reforming as new competitors, as driven as the snow.

The team tapped into the destructive/constructive power of Houdini. This new 3D software gave them ultimate control and allowed for a natural interaction between the figures and their environments, e.g. ice chunks smashing into the ground.

It was important that the project was modular and flexible for a myriad of uses within the whole branding package. All interactive, online and mobile assets were designed to compliment the on-air imagery.

CREDITS
Client: Foxtel
Creative & Design: Ink Project
Production House: Sheepish Lion
Director: Ken Lambert
Executive Producer: Sharon Pearson
VFX Supervision: Steve Anderson  
VFX Producer: Jo Gregory
CG Supervisor: Tom King
3D Lead: Dave Brown
3D Artists: Alex Goodwin, Guy Robinson, Adrian Lim, Phil Sloggett, Craig Brown
Flame Compositors: Hugh Seville, Paul Heagney
Shake Compositors: Hugo Saunders, Justin Alvarez
Colourist: Scott Mclean