Pin-Ball Widgets and Spirit Chasers Pin-Ball Widgets and Spirit Chasers

Part of MCI's 98 KICK-OFF video

Wild Dog Studios Founder Stephen Cocks created a three-dimensional animated environment for MCI's '98 KICK-OFF video. Using Silicon Graphic and NT workstations, Cocks created a 3D giant rotating box that placed the viewer inside. Video images line the box walls. Cocks first assembled three, 3D oval video screens to float in the space, then made a pin-ball like "widget" bouncing inside the box by placing a virtual shock absorber system in the center of an oval screen. Finally, Cocks animated four logos. After the 36 hours of work, Cocks rested.

Spirit Chasers Productions Producer Chris Hefferen hired Wild Dog to create a 3D animated environment for an interactive CD-ROM for Phillips-Magnovox's DVD 8000 DVD player. In the opening, the "Prepare for Impact" polygon is back lit with a volumetric light. As the light passes over the letters, a lightening bolt shatters them, then cuts to a tunnel-like world of digital screens.

The screens, created in 3D were imported into the FLINT as a geometric framework. Phillips commercials were mapped onto each screen and animated. The tunnel was made using a 3D cylinder with a volumetric light. To create an organic, cloud-like effect, an animated noise modifier was added. In Part 2, a bright light shines up from the center of rendered floor. DVD 8000 logo circles around in the light. The light is then enclosed by a series of circular panels that have animated circuitry on them and rotate about the light. The light fades along with the product name and a sphere rises up through the floor. Volumetric lights in the center of the sphere rotate, emitting laser-like rays which create a digital cube around the sphere (the cube was composited into the animation using the FLINT). If all of this sounds complicated, it is: it took twelve layers of elements to compose the animation.