Another problem was light reflections on the car. A dummy test was filmed in an indoor environment, but the outside environment caused problems for the post production team. Clouds and different sun conditions during the day, and lights from skyscrapers in the night were reflected on the car chassis and recognized as uncomfortable flickering. The only solution was to replace the filmed MINI model with a 3D rendered model, to expose the actors with rotoscoping and to combine them with the new background. Shadows were added or modified manually to match the different sunlight conditions.
The result is a perfect camera movement around the MINI Cabrio.
Character animation and virtual set extensions
In one of the clips the user gets X-Ray glasses to see the skeleton of the actor and the MINI in an X-Ray view. The whole car character was rendered and animated with Maxon's 3D Cinema 4D software, simulating the look and feel of night vision goggles. The set was remodeled in 3D to allow simulated vision interference.
Another interesting production highlight was the creation of a complete virtual screen for the clip "movie theater". This was done by combining the virtual environment and a real scene, using tracking points and movie effects produced by Discreet's Combustion.
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Flash integration and interaction
The post production team spent more time to create the Flash application than they would normally spend on a regular video production.
But how does the integration and interaction with the Flash movie work? Intelligent Flash loading algorithms allow background loading of clips while others are playing. Careful planning and clever interaction with the player kept the user's attention.
An example for this type of interaction is the Clip "Hacky-Sack". In this video a ball is flying out of the video window and the actors are prompting the user to through it back.
Of course the ball is not landing in the hands of the actor, rather somewhere on the car, highlighting "accidentally" selected MINI features.
Every clip contains a unique interaction with the user, which makes a visit to the MINI website an exciting and memorable experience.
Conclusion
The BMW MINI Cooper Cabrio Flash site is a real life example of a cutting-edge Flash Video application designed for broadband users. It combines professional video production and postproduction with sophisticated interactive Flash elements. The challenge was to produce an application that goes beyond video-on-demand, adding interactivity, and increasing value to the BMW's MINI site.
The future of broadband based Rich Media applications is here!
Translated and edited by Jens Loeffler
Text based on an article of Bjoern Kowalski
bjoernkowalski.de, Effekt-Etage
If you have any questions about the article please contact us at info@flashstreamworks.com
Links:
Mini Application
Effekt-Etage (Berlin, Germany)
BBDO-Interone (Hamburg, Germany)
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