Eightvfx–Bmw Commercial

[Michael Szalapski]

This is a well-made commercial with rather impressive tracking. The level of detail put into graphics that are on the screen for less than a second is a nice touch and truly only appreciated frame-by-frame.
To replicate this in AE alone? Very difficult. Nigh impossible.
I would say that this requires a separate 3d tracking tool (and lots of preplanning as well).
Also, for at least the brake/wheel explode/blueprint, you would use a 3d modeling program.
(I think some of the shots of the car were CG too, but no promises.)
Most of the shots have a perfect motion track. (one or two shots of the swimmer could have used a bit more compositing work, but this is a very minor issue and one hardly worth mentioning) This, most likely, required a number of people and a lot of hours of work.

However, if your goal is not to replicate, but to allude to the spot? Possible! However, it requires good planning.
Having graphics flow through a scene is simple enough if the camera stays locked down. Tracking x and y axis motion is quite easy in AE so you could track a graphic onto something moving horizontally through the screen.
There are a lot of different effects going on. The ease of copying it really depends on what you’re wanting to copy.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Michael Esteves]

My intentions were to recreate the heart monitor on the swimming section, as well as the circles around the swimmers leg?

Still possible?

I’ve rigged and constructed the different elements in AE, however i’m missing a particular flare, to sell the shot!

[Michael Esteves]

Also, how would I achieve the glow effect on the heart monitor?

[Michael Szalapski]

Well, there’s always Knolls Light Factory Pro for producing great flares. I just did an advertrailer for a client that involved a lot of that. I love Knoll. You can have it as easy, or as powerful as you want it. A lot of the time, I just use the EZ option, but for several shots, it just wasn’t working, so I used the pro options and customized the ever-living cr*p out of them. (Well, that’s a little hyperbolic, but you get the point.)

As for getting your glow, there are tons of ways to get nice, tasteful glows. Adjustment layers with Stylize>Glow or Trapcode>Starglow adjusted to taste or on a precomp. They key to this ad (and to most luxury car’s marketing) is subtle sumptuousness. The graphic should look expensive without saying, “I’m expensive.”

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Eric Altman]

This is years later, but I was looking up some old projects. Just wanted to offer some completion on this thread.

I was the coordinator for that spot. At the time, it took a team of 10 several months to achieve. Our PFTrack artist (and yes, I think of him as an artist) was impeccable. The work done in FLAME and FLINT with the beautiful and clean 3D rendered mixed text/models was painstaking and if it wasn’t so meticulous and slow, would have been awe-inspiring to watch. 🙂

-Eric

[Michael Szalapski]

Wow! Thanks for chiming in! Beautiful spot. You are right to be proud of that work.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.