This is a very well made student project utilizing Blender for a 3D motion graphics commercial. Besides the final product,the author also published the animatic which illustrates he how pre-designed the concept.
Aaron Powell writes:
I'm a college student at RIT in Rochester, NY. I created a commercial for the Toyota Prius for a class I took this quarter using Blender for 3D modeling and animation, and After Effects for editing and post-production work.
To see how the project progressed, please visit my blog at http://aaronwpowell.wordpress.com.
Note that I don't have an official connection with Toyota or the Prius family of cars, this was simply a fun project I did for school. :)
Hope you enjoy it!
The final product:
http://vimeo.com/23612117
The animatic:
http://vimeo.com/23621554
An animatic/final comparison:
http://vimeo.com/23621455
38 Comments
It looks pretty cool and well done, but it breaks the #1 rule of car advertising: never ever remove a car from its ground, one has to justify somehow the existence of the road network that defaces our environment.
Definitly should have used the smoke sim :)
Title is missleading. This is not a Prius, and this is not a commercial.
It's neat, but imo the shadows and AO are way too strong, the drop shadow could be be moderated.
I thought it was good. Could use a bit more here and there, but I think it was still good work, and it's better that you were able to plan something and complete that plan.
Konrad
you noticed that this is a student project for his class ???
Konrad is the best example how many ....... are in the blender community.
@claas what's that got do with anything. If you make art or anything for that matter and put it in the public domain expect to be criticized. So what if its student the work?
Nice timing and movements, thats great. A "flying" car is really bit funny ;-) keep on training, your are good.
@natinja, @Jake:
a car? That's just a silhouette! I understood it as a symbol, an idea, a generalization of cars - not a specific one.
So, there is no need for ground or realism.
I think it is very good.
@natinja, @Jake:
a car? That's just a silhouette! I understood it as a symbol, an idea, a generalization of Toyota cars - not a specific one.
So, there is no need for ground or realism.
I think it is very good.
Electric motors produce water? When did this miracle happen? This is the problem with student film makers, they're not very educated. I think they've confused electric engines with hydrogen powered engines. Hey, students, nothing produces pollution worse than an electric vehicle. Where do you think the electricity comes from? The wall? It comes mostly from coal fired power plants - big ones belching pollution into the air. Other than the misinformation this student commercial spews, I didn't think it was anything impressive.
I agree with Konrad, "Title is missleading. This is not a Prius, and this is not a commercial."
Great animation but I agree that title of the post is misleading.
@Joe... Not to point out the obvious but fuel cell powered cars do produce water. And this was not the student's claim, it was Toyota's. You need to see the commercial comparison before you use your keyboard as a weapon. Makes you look kinda stupid.
last I checked the Prisus is a hybrid so what it spews out from its exhaust is exactly the same as what a gas powered car spews out. Just not in the same amounts. And hydrogen fuel cell cars are not emissions free. The electricity that is needed to produce hydrogen comes mostly from coal fired power plants.
Come on maan, tray again. Sorry but it was simply misleading. And quiet not good advertisement neither for toyota or blender....
@fred, the electricity to make hydrogen (or separate from water) could come from any source. Solar, wind, etc. It does not need to have a fossil fuel catalyst. A "gas station" could literally be fitted with enough solar devices to separate all the hydrogen they needed for a days worth of hydrogen sales.
Crisp and clean, sometimes hard to find in Blender productions...Nice job!
I'm an RIT SOFA grad myself...nice to see another Blender user from there!
If we increase the amount of cars that give water emissions, we will have to upgrade our storm sewer systems.
Where is the title missleading?
Do you really need to see the real car to accept the fact that he talks about a visionary electric car for Toyota
for his SCHOOL project which is not for Blender not Toyota itself ???
i hope that was an animation class. the timing was nicely spaced out (though the vocal overdub coulda been less noisy, and maybe not someone that sounds like a fat 12 year old boy) artwork wise, it works as a cohesive whole and it follows it's own style. not in love with the actual artwork and particularly the vignetting (which i'm getting sick of, in yours and others works, frankly) but it get's the message across. the miracle car that doesn't produce any smog but instead water (honestly people, lay off... if i hadn't looked into it previously, i might think that from toyota's commercials alone). if it was a commercial graphics course, i'm surprised the student didn't find someway to squeeze in the company name at least 3 times.
overall, a fine attempt and would receive a pass from me. unfortunately it would make me hunger for even bigger and better things. whether they'd be available.....
@claas
"Toyota Prius commercial with Blender"
I was expecting a commercial studio made a commercial for toyota using blender, which I was pretty excited to see what a commercial studio has made. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels that.
"Student project creating Toyota Prius commercial with Blender"
Now I know what to expect.
Is Blender an official part of RIT's program or was it an individual choice to use it?
Thanks for all of the replies!
@jay: It was a personal choice. The program I'm in is still young and we only focus on "industry-standards" like Maya and Mudbox.
@greg zaal: I really wanted to do a smoke sim - I even got to the point of trying to animate it in the shot. It became really cumbersome and because of time constraints I couldn't afford to keep playing with it. Maybe some other time. ;)
This project was to learn how to use 3D assets in a motion graphics piece. Yes, I chose a somewhat controversial topic. Although I didn't succeed in creating a "professional" advertisement, I learned a lot about motion graphics and the production pipeline in this project and I thought it was a success in that respect. I've gotten a lot of crits and comments about the piece from many parts of the spectrum, and I'm really proud of it regardless - I learned a lot too, and I can't wait to do more projects.
Im not sure why everyones so worried about pollution :/ I mean the whole global warming stuff is just a scam for a bunch of money and its working for some reason. Plants use carbon dioxide and stuff to give us oxygen. And if we suddenly stop polluting then there will be nothing for plants to use and then we will be in trouble...
But Great job on this! Keep it up! :D
@ Aaron, ah, too bad- I do know a grad from a couple years ago who used Maya and was hoping things have changed. As a side note, James Gurney is coming to RIT in the Fall, you should be there, I know it is in the works for me!
JW Dundee in the house!
hi, how did you do the numbers change like that?
@jay - That'd be cool! I'll email you about it separately. :)
@haris - I created two actions that scaled the numbers from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 0 (scale up and down). I then created bones that controlled each set of numbers and set the local position to control the action. If you'd like you can see a breakdown of the rig on my portfolio site: http://ap4d.com/toyota.html. There's a screenshot and a short explanation it might help you understand it better.
@Dillbobaggins
"Plants use carbon dioxide and stuff to give us oxygen. And if we suddenly stop polluting then there will be nothing for plants to use and then we will be in trouble…"
I assume you're joking here, right?
@Dillbobaggins
You are a idiot and i expect you not to understand global warming or what its about reading your silly comment. Enjoy surving burger's the rest of your life.
@Aaron Powell
Great job man dont let anyone tell you other wise. Sure i did expect a lil more but all in all not bad. As you said you have learned alot and thats what counts. The crits from these people and use them in the future :) Keep it up. Just dont end up like Dillbobaggins please!
This is great stuff Aaron! You certainly have an eye for good taste.
Sure, it whould have been mind blowing to see avatar class renderrings, but this is obviously not what you had in mind. I simple love it:
- smooth animation;
- clean and powerful message;
- nice color scheme and consistent object style.
With love from Romania!
@Zeal
And also don't end up like zeal :) At least i can keep an argument without insults.... Insults are just a way to get around trying to come up with a good argument and without thinking it through. Think about that one for a while...
@Diilbobaggind
Point is: your argument is, i'm sorry to say, utter nonsense only showing your ignorance.
If you look at the data, the earth has been warming at a nearly constant rate over the past 275+ years. Glaciers in Alaska have been receding at a similar rate since the first photos of them were taken of them in 1852, long before the industrial revolution or any significant man made polution. The earth goes in cycles. Ice ages and hot spells. It has for millions of years and will continue.
That said, we should absolutely take as good of care of our environment as we reasonably can, and getting off fossil fuels would be a historic moment. What I don't agree with is people like Al Gore who try to drum up money based on skewed facts, hyperbole and scare tactics.
Smog has provably bad effects on the human body and is unique to human products. Reducing smog is overall good for people and the environment we live in, especially in large cities where the effects of it are most concentrated.
This is not the place for global warming arguments, take them to a more legitimate source than an animation community, I am sure they will have better evidence and will be better prepared to contradict your opinions. If you have a problem with their preparedness, you are not interested in the facts, you are just a zealot, to both sides of the argument.
Great production. And thanks for sharing the animatic as well - always good to see the process.
Wow- awesome job guys on the video. Ignore the posting trolls who have nothing better to do than to pick apart student work that is clearly impressive, progressive and well-intentioned. Real artists don't destroy fellow artists- they inspire them. So clearly these posting trolls have very little to no skills and/ or nothing better to do with their time. You can't teach class (No pun intended).