We're thrilled to share an incredible behind-the-scenes look at a project by Otoman Robot, who used our tools to create an epic animated video for the Sphere in Las Vegas. Commissioned by Roger Gastman from Beyond the Streets, Otoman produced a three-part artist series to promote the Super Bowl, with the first video featuring the legendary graffiti artist Eric Haze.
Every so often a project drops on your lap that blows your mind and kicks your butt at the same time. Proud to share behind the scenes for my latest collaboration with the Sphere in Las Vegas and Beyond the Streets, promoting the Super Bowl. This project was the first drop of three for the XO/Art series, with legendary graffiti artist Eric Haze, celebrating football and his iconic style.
The Sphere is no ordinary screen; it's a massive digital display with millions of LEDs, standing at 366 feet tall with a diameter of 516 feet. Otoman had never worked on a spherical canvas before, but with the Sphere team's thorough onboarding process and a well-prepared tech pack, he was ready to dive in. The Sphere's interactive real-time preview environment in Unreal Engine allowed Otoman to simulate daylight and nighttime settings, ensuring the video looked perfect from every angle.
Otoman started with an After Effects template that had the right frame rate and canvas settings. The Sphere team's quality control process was rigorous, especially when it came to managing the seam where the canvas edges meet. But with our tools, Otoman was able to tackle these challenges head-on.
For this project, Otoman turned to our Newton plugin to simulate gravity and dynamics, which was a game-changer. He split the 60-second video into two 30-second loops, switching the color scheme to honor Eric Haze love for black and white. To ensure a seamless animation, Otoman duplicated and flipped compositions, avoiding any visible seams.
He also created a parallax effect with layers of icons moving at different speeds and opacities. For the opening animation, Otoman used a stroke effect to reveal lines and arrows, bringing the icons to life. Newton helped simulate the drop of shapes for the typography reveal, adding a dynamic touch to the video.
The final scene required the most processing power due to the large number of icons. Otoman experimented with different settings to find the perfect formation and frame rate. He manually adjusted the icons to avoid repetition and ensure everything looked dynamic.
When the video went to final quality control, there was some bunching at the top of the sphere. But with the Sphere team's tools, Otoman was able to correct this and ensure the video looked perfect when rendered.
Otoman's journey with this project was challenging but rewarding. Our tools played a crucial role in helping him bring his vision to life. We're proud to see our plugins being used in such innovative ways, and we can't wait to see what other amazing projects our users create!
Thanks for sharing your experience, Otoman! If you have any questions or want to share your own projects using Motion Boutique tools, feel free to reach out or join our Discord Server.