The Deep Blue Sea team - led by creative director David Woodward, along with executive producer Carlos Rondon, producer Paula Jimenez, 3D animator Todd Peleg, Mac After Effects artist Maximo Galbusera, and FX designer Kyle Reynolds - spent hours developing and completing the concept for the project. The package included designing the channel’s logo, forming all the storyboards for the animations, and the final execution of the entire project.
The base color palette consists of the black, red and yellow of the German flag. As fans react to the action, their face paint rapidly changes to represent the countries in the tournament. The clothes of girls dancing in the stands change to their team’s colors. And as a player maneuvers through a group of defenders, his uniform changes to different team colors, which eventually become the tournament logo.
All the elements (IDs, bumpers, opens, etc.) were created in 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios. Deep Blue Sea also cast and directed all the on-screen talent, which included seven players, three girls and one soccer-crazy fan. Live action was shot on Digital Betacam against greenscreen over a two-day period at Manhattan Transfer Miami, Deep Blue Sea’s sister company.
“From a design perspective, it was important to use as much relevant imagery as possible,” notes creative director Woodward. “We used fast camera motion and dynamic soccer action to capture the energy and excitement of the World Cup and the black, red and yellow of the German flag were used as design elements to brand the pieces to the tournament location, as well as using the names of the German cities that are hosting the various games.
“The German color stripes also serve as a guide that moves the viewer through the animations from one action to another. To add an organic feel to the design, the players and backgrounds were treated with textured dirt splatters that created an aged printed poster look.”
Adobe After Effects was used to design and animate all 2D motion graphics, including environments, symbols, lines and type. Softimage was used for 3D elements, including soccer balls, glass and transparent components. Deep Blue Sea used Discreet Flame to rotoscope, track, composite and conform all 2D and 3D elements, as well as for color alterations and matte generation.
The package was mixed in Pro Tools.