Spotlights - Motorola City

"The EcoSystem technology combined with the node based function editor made Vue the first choice app for this project!"

BBDO NY approached leading CGI specialists Taylor James, to create a print campaign image for Motorola Government & Public safety solutions. The pitch was to create an idealistic generic North American city, where the latest Motorola products keep the city safe.
Too tricky and expensive to shoot using traditional photography and retouching, BBDO needed a world class CGI company that could deliver photo realistic imagery.

The idea for the interactive site was conceived by Taylor James, looking at ways to maximise their clients’ costs budgets.
Having built every asset to the highest levels, they saw an opportunity to start navigating within the city to see these products in different scenarios.
Once Motorola bit into the idea, the next step was to develop the content for each scenario.
"The idea of creating a virtual city where visitors could experience real-life scenarios while learning how Motorola’s products can be applied was very exciting."

Technical Aspects

The development of the six scenarios was complex, as Taylor James had to work with various Motorola departments to validate they were showing a correct use of the products. Once story boards were approved, Taylor James started production, creating the animatics of the travels into the city and then building all the required assets.

BBDO handled all the fine tuning of the copy and sound recording. Soulpolice (the web design studio) then started the design process for the site putting basic mood boards together following Motorola styling templates.

Half way through production of the complete CGI environment, they started the photography process for all the different characters. This was again produced by Taylor James and shot in a tight four day schedule by Simon Thorpe. With WIP environments in place, client sign-off of model positions and poses was achieved on the shoot. In the later stages Taylor James and Soulpolice worked simultaneously developing the content and main site structure and design.

Every aspect of this project was created in 3D except for the various characters, who were shot using traditional photography. Working to 12,000 pixel large format posters, Taylor James created an amazing amount of detail building 'Motorolacity'.
"Our software pipeline on this project was composed of 3ds Max / Digital Fusion / Vue xStream / Vray / Fume FX / Afterburn / Photoshop and some of our in-house tools."

Rendering over 500 million polygons in 3ds Max and around 10 billion polygons in Vue wasn't easy but Taylor James setup a unique render pipeline that helped them through the process. The blend between 2D and 3D elements was also difficult when trying to make a smooth transition.

Taylor James worked on this project for 6 months in total and the production was completed in 12 weeks.

Check out the Motorola website at www.motorolacity.com

About Vue

What was your overall impression of Vue?

GT: I really liked the node based Function Editor, you can control nearly everything with it. In Vue we love the Eco System, it’s great. This combined with the node based function editor, made Vue the first choice.

Is there any other project planned? If so, an you describe them a little bit?

GT: We have had Vue for some time and used it on various small projects. We are currently working on a project creating maps in 3D, this has a mammoth amount of Vue work and will be a real jaw dropper!

About Taylor James

Taylor James was established in 1999, by Glen Taylor and joined by fellow director Brendan Haley 18 months later. As a photographic retouching company, they worked on Silicon Graphics machine running Barco creator software. Brendan and Glen have degrees in photography and graphic design respectively. Taylor James expanded into CGI in 2005. Having a strong folio of automotive work, they soon combined photography with CGI cars created in Studio Max.

"We have had Vue for some time and used it on various small projects. We used Vue xStream to complete the large project for Motorola, creating a complete city environment and surrounding countryside."