Created for the fine folks at the Half Rez 9 conference in Chicago.
Among the event’s sponsors over the past several editions, the leaders from creative production studio Flavor took up the challenge to create an opening film that would set the stage for all the groundbreaking festivities reconvening attendees in-person for the first time since the pandemic.
Inspired by a Speech Bubble
According to Flavor’s Executive Creative Director Brian McCauley, the Half Rez logo added further inspiration to the project’s open brief, in addition to the event’s theme. “Collectively, we all appreciate Half Rez as a fun opportunity to share your creative voice, and we noticed that the logo has a speech bubble design,” he explained. “Since Associate Creative Director Brad Backofen has been experimenting with motion capture hand puppets in C4D, a puppet finding his creative voice felt like a great place to start.”
Leaping to the final results, the meticulously finished :93 presentation stunned the attending crowd of 300, who witnessed a phenomenal 3D/2D animated creation story of biblical proportions. Dazzling with myriad masterfully executed creative techniques – featuring AI generative backgrounds, VR painting, cell animation, and even real puppetry – the hero experiences the trip of a lifetime, lifted even higher courtesy of an epic original soundtrack created by the artists Another Country.
The key steps in Flavor’s development process involved McCauley – along with Backofen and his fellow ACD Colby Capes, Senior Art Director Mack Neaton, and Executive Producer Kate Smith – dialing in their ideas. By their accounts, Maxon’s Cinema 4D was essential for modeling and creative development.
