Our first fully CG projects. When the director (Andy) Tin Pak Lau approached me he had the vision for this spot fully formed in his head. Throughout the development cycle Andy has stayed true to his vision with themes of time dilation, style and cyclical trends showing that the Ursus brand of streetwear is something fresh but also nostalgic.
You can almost hear the Theremin now
We wanted a 80's style look of the flying through space and took inspiration of old Doctor Who openings. There was the option to push the VHS quality to levels much higher (or lower as it were), or play out the large CRT pixels, however the slight over saturation we feel plays a nicer and more traditional look without hitting you in the face.
The CG was created by local artist Pascal Polic who did a simple 3D cylinder in Maya and applied painted star fields. We used a few different star layers to create depth and speed.
Simple is better
Simple techniques can be applied to create nice looking effects. The most common way to do this shot would have been to suspend him on wires with a harness, light a greenscreen cove and shoot. Our budget didn't allow for that. So it was parking lot, apple boxes, a greenscreen on the ground and a jib arm. Easy as pie, just make sure your actor has strong abs.
So there you have it, easy and cheap but looks effective.
