The Briefing Room

Experimental Branded Short Blends 2D, 3D, Stop Motion and Still Photos Into Immersive Visual Experience

LOS ANGELES, CA - Rarely does a single project offer a design studio a chance to flex all of its creative muscles at one time, especially for their first assignment as a company, but that was the exhilarating challenge presented to newly-launched design/animation/production studio Royale — the new creative hub led by creative directors Jayson Whitmore, Brien Holman and executive producer Jen Lucero — when they tackled the new Diesel sponsored three-minute experimental branded short included on a DVD in the ninth anniversary issue of Flaunt Magazine currently on newsstands.

“Flaunt and Diesel gave us full support to speak to their brands and still make the project our own,” said Whitmore. “Working with branded entertainment gave us the freedom to make a relevant piece for Flaunt and Diesel while showing our own capabilities. We were also able to collaborate with some amazing people that helped this project stand out and give our new company a creative voice.”

Taking inspiration from Diesel’s current “Human After All” campaign and outer space in general, the Royale film expertly fuses traditional cell animation and stop motion with 2D/3D animation and compositing. The result is an immersive experience that is also experimental in nature.

“The basic concept was to connect all of these different worlds where Diesel exists through the pages of Flaunt,” adds Holman. “We wanted to take viewers on a voyage through this hyper-stylized version of outer space while limiting the design of this world to the medium of paper from the magazine. All elements, including buildings, spaceships, Robots and planets were made out of scanned images from Flaunt.”

“We had a great time mixing multiple animation techniques to create this environment,” said Whitmore. “Everyone in the studio at some point literally touched the project, whether it was helping to shoot stop motion paper elements or creating textures for the world.”

For Holman, the biggest challenge was creating a sense of fluid motion using only still images. “Using the pages of Flaunt as the medium, we used torn pages to create a world that the Diesel models live in,” said Holman. “Also, knowing the potential for still images to look out of place, we came up with a stylistic solution of mixing stop motion with 2D and 3D animation to help the static images feel more integrated into the world. When all of it blends to the point where you can’t discern the technique you know it’s working.”

In addition to the branded short, Royale designed the packaging for the DVD page and are profiled in the issue. Lucero states, “This was the first time Flaunt had ever included a DVD with branded content in the magazine and we had a great experience being involved with such creative brands.”

Gorodetzki Joins Royale as Director of Sales and Marketing

In other Royale news, the company has added sales/marketing veteran Alex Gorodetzki as the company’s Director of Sales and Marketing. Gorodetzki comes to Royale following two years at design/animation/live action production company Stardust, Los Angeles, where he brought in high profile assignments from agencies Goodby Silverstein & Partners, MAC Cosmetics, TBWA\Chiat\Day, RPA, NIKE, BBDO, ATTIK and Fuel TV for leading brands such as Comcast, HP, Mitsubishi, Honda, Scion and many others.

About Royale:

Founded by creative directors Jayson Whitmore, Brien Holman and executive producer Jennifer Lucero, Royale recognizes that the landscape of advertising has changed drastically within the last few years, and that although the outlets may be changing, the power of the moving image continues to be the most effective way of communicating. Royale’s greatest love is to help solve our client’s advertising needs through the visceral language of motion design. The Royale treatment is an endless stream of creative solutions that surpass client expectation, while maintaining a comfortable, relaxed and highly creative environment. For more information contact Alex Gorodetzk at alex@weareyoyale.com or Jennifer Lucero at jen@weareroyale.com.

Web Resources:

Click here to watch the Royale designed film for Flaunt Magazine and Diesel:

http://www.weareroyale.com/pages/flauntdiesel.html

Click here to visit the Royale website:

http://www.weareroyale.com

Click here for more info about Flaunt Magazine

http://flaunt.com

Click here for more info about Diesel:

http://www.diesel.com

Toolkit:

–Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator

–Cinema 4D

–3D Studio Max

–Final Cut Pro on Mac pro dual core 2.66

Creative Credits:

Client: Flaunt/Diesel

Project: three-minute experimental film

Production/Design/Post: Royale, Los Angeles, CA

Director: Royale

Creative Directors: Jayson Whitmore & Brien Holman

Executive Producer: Jen Lucero

Art Direction: Anthony Furlong

Lead Animation: Jake Portman

Design: Kyle Smith

Animation: David Glicksman, Kevin Tonkin

Cell Animation: Taik Lee, Jason Brubaker

Rotoscoping: Stephanie Tucker, Tiffany Germann

Music & Sound: Chris Zippel Music, Berlin, Germany (www.chriszippel.de)

Composer/Sound Designer: Chris Zippel