I recently produced this video for NBBJ's Qingdao Campus Masterplan competition entry. The project was a 10,000,000 SF campus plan in Eastern China.

The design team had already nearly completed concept design when I joined the team for the express purpose of creating the required "multimedia" component. I wanted to do something that combined the conceptual clarity of 3d animation with the theatricality of live-action performance.

I found a lot of inspiration in BIG's 8 House video. Though I have many more ambitions for architectural representation, I was given an insanely short time frame to complete the entire project (4 weeks from concept to delivery), and I had a steep learning curve ahead of me, so I chose to go with proven techniques rather than risk complete failure with untested innovations. So this is more of a process exercise than anything else.

As it turns out, 4 weeks was far too short of a production schedule, and it was a nearly inhuman effort to complete in time for the competition submission. There are some problems with the production but overall I'm pretty happy with it for a first effort. Next time there will be higher production value and opportunities to innovate in the narrative and add richness and detail, incorporating new graphic elements and investigating new hybrids of media. In the meantime, enjoy, and let me know what you think...

Note: The title is a bit of a misnomer; this is technically not an augmented reality presentation, as it is not done in real time. The video was created with good old choreography, 3d motion tracking, timed 3d animation, rotoscoping, and compositing in After Effects.


CREDITS
Project Team (abbreviated)
AJ Montero, Kevin Herrick, Andy Snyder, Mike Suriano, Brett Egbert, Megha Sinha, Earl Lee, Meredith Doppelt

Video Production
Marc Syp – Scriptwriting, Acting, 3D Animation, Rendering, Special Effects, Editing, Narration (English Version), Sound Design
Andy Snyder – Cinematography
Yi-Chang Chung – Narration (Chinese Version)
REBUS Farm – Render farm service
Rotofactory – Rotoscoping
LiFANG – Final rendered animation sequence


TECH
Panasonic FZ28, 3DS Max 2011, Mental Ray, Matchmover 2011, After Effects CS5, NeoScape, VirtualDub, Deshaker