Production house Radium lent its CG and visual effects expertise to create a high energy street-party themed spot for Target – a client of Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis.

Directed by Spaz Williams, with Radium Creative Director Jonathan Keeton, the spot features Target store products that merge with each other to form dancing party people. ‘Product People, is the first in a series of Target spots Radium will produce this year with Peterson Milla Hooks. It makes its debut on April 2.

Lead Artist and Head of CG, Aladino Debert, says, ‘Stylistically, we wanted it to feel like ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Rent’s in outer space ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® colorful, energetic and theatrical, with each character having a distinctive personality. It a rich concept that opens up all sorts of possibilities for other spots for the client,’ he adds. Created entirely in CG, the camera moves fluidly through the various rooms of an apartment to reveal, in a series of fast edits, Target ‘Product People’ dancing at a party.

A second version of the same spot was also produced for the SuperTarget stores, with the additional ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§product people,’s such as Carmen Cucumber and a Waffle Man.

Techniques
One of the first steps in the process was to film live action dancers performing moves to a rudimentary beat track, later developed into a full music track by Ten Music. The dance moves were choreographed by Travis Payne, who is experienced in music videos and motion capture.

This footage was edited into a rough-cut embodying the arc of the story, giving the client and agency a solid feel for the look of the final product. It also gave Radium team of CG artists a wealth of motion capture data to draw on for their animation.

Individual Target store products – crackers, hardware, cosmetics, grocery items, sports gear -?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® are used to make up the ‘product people.’ ‘We wanted the product components that made up the characters to look like real products,’ says Debert. The products were first photographed under studio lighting, to enhance their natural color and texture, giving them a ‘photo real’ quality and retail appeal that would be retained in the CG environment.

The way the products formed into distinct characters also needed to have visual integrity. ‘It was important that the products ‘interacted’ and formed into characters in a logical way – not just by flying through the air and randomly merging. We wanted the animation to be highly articulated and build the visual richness of the spot,’ Keeton explains.

Design
Using set design drawings, Radium artists then built the various apartment interiors in CG – kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and hallway. Target signature red and white color palette is used throughout for brand recognition. The street and exterior of a big red apartment building is revealed in the closing shot. ‘Visually, the idea was to convey a ‘theatrical’ cyclorama. We wanted the apartment block at the end to look like a ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§real’s building, but part of a theatrical set at the same time,’ according to Jonathan Keeton.

About Radium
Founded in 1996 by Creative Directors/Visual Effects Directors Jonathan Keeton and Simon Mowbray, Radium brings innovative and inventive solutions to production and post-production. The San Francisco and Los Angeles studios work in tandem on projects, with comprehensive compositing, CG, editor and design divisions inhouse. Comprised of the leading talents in the industry, Radium is home to a talented pool of artists with a diversity of background experience, with the ability to work in mediums including broadcast, film, television, live action and design.
www.radium.com

Production Credits

Client: Target
Title: ‘Product People’
Air Date: April 2, 2006

Agency: Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis, MN

Creative Director: Dave Peterson
Art director: Bethany Nagy
Agency producer: Gary Tassone

Production company: Radium, San Francisco & Los Angeles, CA
Creative Director/President: Jonathan Keeton
Executive Producer: Jeff Blodgett
Director: Spaz Williams
Lead Artist, CG: Aladino Debert
Producer: Donna Langston
Editor: Alan Chimenti, Radium

Music house: Ten Music, Santa Monica, CA

Choreography, MSA, Hollywood

Motion Capture, House of Moves, Los Angeles, CA

Set Designs: Jet Sets, North Hollywood, CA

Product Photography: Jeff Li Photography, Los Angeles, CA

Illustrator/Concept Artist: Cliff Iwai