ASPLANDS ANIMATION CASE STUDY
BRIEF
We were approached by Goldcrest to produce the marketing assets for their Asplands Development, a scheme of 13 luxury apartments aimed at the over 55s market.
For once, time was not of the essence, as we started the project several months in advance of work beginning on site.
PROCESS
We began by producing the still images – and exterior hero image and six interior images. For the interiors mood-boards, furniture references and kitchen and bathroom layouts were provided by the client. Our artists followed these to produce the initial drafts. Tweaks were made and the bathroom was completely re-done in order to bring the desired look and feel across.
Once the second revisions were signed off, we delivered the high resolution versions to the client before starting work on the animation.
The first stage was to produce a raw, untextured version to show the camera paths. This was shared with the client to make sure we covered all the USPs. It’s a technical check – are the cameras covering all the areas they want to show? Are the cameras moving at an appropriate pace?
As it happened this raw animatic brought to light some inconsistencies in the architectural designs, with regards to how the kitchen units aligned with the large patio window. It also brought to light that an opening patio door would be better than a plain glass window, giving extra access to the terraced area.
We then created 3 further raw versions to deal with these issues and to experiment with certain features, for example, the patio doors opening to let the camera through versus the patio doors remaining closed and the transition from terrace to living room being facilitated by a fade instead.
Only once the client was completely happy with what they would build did we move on to the next stage: Key frames. We complete a full render this for every 50th frame. At 25 frames per second, running through the completed shots creates a good impression of what the final animation will look like. At this stage, tweaks can still be made. The final stage is to texture, light and render all the frames in between, creating the final version of the animation. Music and logos are added to create the fully-produced final version.
RESULTS
This is s a rare example of us not having to work against the clock. With a fast feedback turnaround, a project like this would normally take approx. 2-3 months to complete. However, in reality given the discrepancies that can be thrown up, it can take longer. In this case, our production process was flexible enough to accommodate the stop-start nature of this project, moving at the client’s pace. The whole process from start to finish took approximately 6 months due to the design revisions which the CGI animation process sparked. Our processes are flexible enough to accommodate this, moving at the client’s pace. When it was complete, the site development manager and the construction manager were given the animation to look at before starting on site – and both found it incredibly helpful.
Deliverables:
1 x Exterior Hero Shot
1 x Kitchen CGI
1 x Living Room / Dining Room
2 x Bedrooms & Terraces
1 x Bathroom
1 x Full length animation
BUDGET – £10,034.00
“We went out to three companies to price for animation and CGI stills for a development of 13 luxury apartments. After considering the companies we opted to appoint Pixel Workshop to undertake this project for us. At enquiry stage Pixel were both competitive in price and extremely helpful with providing a summary of what they could do, the extent of the work involved and a timeframe for this.
From the offset the staff, Olivia and Tunica, were very professional and approachable, continuing to explain exactly what they needed from us in relation to specific detail to ensure the design was as accurate as possible. We were regularly updated on progress and received snippets of the evolving CGI’s and animation.
The designers picked up aesthetic deviations to our design and advised how these could be overcome in the animation to achieve the desired result. Their dedication to design and detail was faultless, along with their tenacious grip on ensuring detail was sent through by us as soon as possible to make sure they met the timeframe we agreed upon (which at times meant nudging us to give answers, but that was appreciated).
The project was delivered on time and we were extremely pleased with the final results. We will use Pixel again and would, without doubt recommend to others.”
Asplands Animation