Microsoft Corp. introduced Silverlight, a cross platform browser platform for creating rich internet applications, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in April with a 90 second video that shows how the software can be used through multiple vignettes. Since the introduction at NAB, the video has gone viral.
Matt Silverman, creative director at Phoenix Editorial & Designs/San Francisco, which created the video with Ember/Venice, CA, said, “We created a simple story of a designer creating a work of art that gets passed to the developer who creates a website.”
But that’s just the beginning of the story. The work of art is a skateboard design that leads to the development of a customized skateboard that is shown in action with numerous riders; then two boys edit the skateboard footage with an online editing system; two girls assemble the footage into their social networking site; the video goes viral, where many people look at it; and the owner of the skateboard company checks out his sales report, which is booming thanks to Silverlight.
Ember, a concept/design studio that provided the concept for the video, used 2-D and 3-D animated elements, which combined with live action footage shot by Phoenix’s Silverman at Kerner Optical/San Rafael, CA to create a fantasia-like experience that’s rich with imagery.
The animation transformed the live action characters, whose real life clothes were replaced by animated designs. “What would they look like in this world? We wanted the characters to have a hyper real sensitivity, so we designed graphics for each character to embody them,” said Jason Ett, Ember’s director. “Once we had them in composite, we tracked the characters clothing and attached graphics to the tracking points.”
The live action shoot had its own challenges with the skateboarding scene requiring a smaller Panasonic HVX-900 camera to shoot the professional skateboarders from within the bowl, Silverman said.
The video relied on collaboration between Phoenix and Ember to coordinate the live action and animation. Silverman said Phoenix did green screening and rotoscoping and used Maya and Adobe After Effects to prepare footage that was sent to Ember. “They created the CG environments where the people live,” he said.
“Silverlight” originally played at the NAB conference. It can now be seen at www.microsoft.com/silverlight and YouTube. “It’s gone viral and now it’s being discussed on skateboarding blogs and websites and taking on a life of its own,” Silverman said.
