The brief was to produce a CD based presentation to explain how the client can benefit its clients. My response was to use director 8 to build the presentation, and 3Ds Max4 to produce 3D animations, scenes and characters to help tell the viewer a bit about the clients service. There were four main characters, a Scottish male, an American male, an English male and a English female. I managed the recording of their parts and how their voices were used in the presentation. There sere several points within the presentation that used formulas to plot graphs and chose the correct spoken response. The presentation runs for around 12 minutes and provides links to websites and PDF documents. The biggest part of the presentation was the modelling and animating of the 3D scenes as the client wanted the viewer to be take between Windsor, London and New York. I have decided to concentrate on the 3D aspect of the presentation on this page, as it was the most interesting and challenging.

This 3D sequence required the viewer to be taken from space to the clients board room located in Windsor. I decided to make the shot using one continuous camera movement, but because of the complexity of the Windsor and boardroom models the sequence had to be split up into three parts (The globe to Windsor, Windsor to the clients building, and the outside of the building to inside the board room. The globe texture was made from 3 maps, the first been a map of the globe, the second been of Europe and the third map was the UK. I had to use three, as the image of the UK on the global map was very low res. The clouds were separate to the land and water image which allowed me to move them away from the land and increase their luminosity. To help me build Windsor I used an arial photograph to get the scale and placement of the buildings. I was also able to use it to get the correct colour for the buildings, roads and fields. The board room was an exact replica of the actual clients board room, down to the paintings on the wall. The people also animated as the camera entered the room to give the impression that the meeting had just started. This shot took around 85 hours to produce (excluding rendering) and runs for 24 seconds. 1 A view of the earth (over America) as seen from space. 2 The camera slowly moves towards the earth and starts to swing around to the UK, picking up speed as it goes. 3 The camera moves towards the south of the UK, just west of London. 4 As you get closer you start to see streets, buildings and Windsor Castle to the top right. Everything in this shot is 3D, the more complex models in the middle with simple boxes around the outside. This gives the scene depth as the camera dives in. 5 As you get closer you start to make out cars, people and trees. The clients building is slightly over saturated to draw the viewers attention to it. 6 The clients building comes into shot and the camera levels off. The words "Windsor, United Kingdom" type on the screen then fade. 7 The camera slows and moves towards an open window. 8 The camera comes to rest in the clients board room with the two main characters at the front and four other background figures (added to make the scene less empty).

Like the previous animation the camera starts in space but this time it flies direct to New York. Unlike Windsor I could not find any good top down arial photos, all the arial photographs I had were looking across the city. So the placement of the buildings is pretty random. I made up the textures of the concrete and glass buildings and stuck a skyline shot of the city in the background (which is seen by the camera as it levels off). I used some ray-tracing on the glass buildings and the shadows created by the sun. The Americans office is not based on a real office, not much time was spent on the office as the camera is moving at a good pace. Time was spent on his desk with its printer, flat panel monitor (which has a screen grab of my monitor when I was building the office) and keyboard and bookshelf. This shot took about 35 hours to make (excluding rendering) and runs for 18 seconds. 1 The camera passes through some light clouds to the patchwork of buildings. 2 Levelling off the camera moves towards a skyscraper with views of the busy streets either side. 3 Skimming across the tops of the buildings you start to move in on one of the skyscrapers windows. 4 You pass through the window into a spacious office with a desk to the left hand side. 5 You approach the desk and the man finishes writing and moves some papers. 6 Facing the man he begins to talk (nice photo of New York in the background).

The London scene was quicker to build as I already had the fly down tot he UK from space, plus there were plenty of high resolution arial photos available. I didn't have to fly into a fixed spot so I picked a nice shaped building by the river and built a small section of London. The office was also 'made up' and has a nice blue Mac on the desk. London and the office took around 20 hours to build and the whole shot including the globe runs for 15 seconds. 1 The nice brown River Thames. 2 Moving towards a building with a skylight. 3 Flying towards and through the skylight. 4 In the office there is a female consultant playing golf (apparently a joke in the world of financial services). 5 She takes her shot and the camera pans back, she stands up strait and talks to camera.