I picked up the April, 2009 issue of Spin Magazine to pass the time on my flight back from Easter with the family. On page 37 I got a bit of a surprise: a campaign for the 60th anniversary of Onitsuka Tiger designed by Amsterdam Worldwide featuring a visually ambiguous model of a sneaker-slash-island (the island being Japan)
The image caught my eye because I'm currently working on an ambiguous island model of my own, only mine will have a tropical 'tiki' motif, complete with a volcano and small trees rendered in Maxwell. (don't go too much by the illustration above - it's for position only, at the moment)
One thing I noticed was the decision in the sneaker print ad to frame so loosely as to reveal the edges of the painted sky backdrop. The other thing that really stood out to me was the subtle, but visible electrical cord in the ad. The volcano in my image will be internally lit and I also plan to incorporate a visible (CG) electrical cord into the composition.
In the same way that I hung my Tiki Moon on unnecessary 'wires,' or built my CG hot rod flames within the limitations of 4' x 8' sheets of virtual plywood, I like to add these misleading cues to my computer graphics.
"My philosophy is to use 3D CG to 'fly under the audience's VFX radar.' No matter how well you render a robot, the viewer will evaluate the work as VFX. If you render a painted wooden wall and some throwing knives, hopefully the viewer will evaluate the work as an image -- one with nice production value and a healthy budget for props and styling, but an image nonetheless."
-- A quote from my cgsociety.org gallery
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