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For the design and creation of the Scent of A Robot music video, the first single off Pete Miser?s latest CD, Camouflage Is Relative, the creative collective UVPHACTORY (UVPH) enjoyed total creative control. The New York-based design and production company created the concept, designed and executed the 3D animation, lensed the live-action footage and completed the offline and online editorial for the 3:30 video which will ship to MTV networks, VH1, MuchMusic, Fuse, and local access cable shows, among others, in early January.
With Scent of A Robot, a joint venture from Ho-Made Media (Miser?s label) and independent music marketing company Coup de Grace, the multi-talented, multi-cultural, hip-hop intelligence of Pete Miser has gone into overdrive with the hilariously philosophical single about a cubicle-dwelling everyman who inadvertently discovers that he?s a robot.
In the Summer of 2004 Pete Miser, recognizing UVPHACTORY?s talent for storytelling, graphics and live-action, commissioned the company to create a music video for Scent of a Robot, his soon to be released single. This collaboration was the perfect opportunity for UVPHACTORY to demonstrate the depth of their creative team?s talent.
?Pete?s song poses a series of existential questions: What are humans? What does it mean to be alive, to be a person? We all enjoyed exploring what this robot was like, questioning peoples habitual behaviors and the living of an unexamined life. It was these questions which sparked the idea of a split reality - what the robot perceives and actual reality. We got to work shooting the live-action footage in a variety of New York locations - subways, a Manhattan office tower after hours, an apartment and even in the bathroom of our offices,? explained UVPHACTORY Senior Producer Brian Welsh.
?In our hiring, we look for multi-talented individuals but everyone has their forte -- Colin is an amazing designer, Ryan an unparalleled character animator, Jake is incredible with colors and textures, and Bashir?s illustrations are remarkable -- this project allowed everyone?s individual strengths, and UVPHACTORY?s collective strengths, to shine. I was really impressed with the group effort. Everybody was enthusiastic and committed and the effort really shows in the final video.?
?Things really clicked when we heard Scent of a Robot. I thought the lyrics were powerful, but I did not want to just illustrate them, I wanted to find an unusual angle,? continued UVPHACTORY Creative Director Alexandre Moors. ?The lyrics are about a guy who finds out he is a robot. I thought it would be interesting to have a robot schooled in all the human behaviors, who sees things through ?human? eyes, who thinks he is ?more human than human? (Pete?s nod to the motto of the company in Blade Runner which designs cyborgs). He has a robot wife, a robot co-worker, commutes in robot subways. It?s a metaphor for all of us -- we can be formatted, programmed like robots, run 9 to 5, so we wove in as many jokes as possible - the video is full of little quotes and motivational posters on the walls of the corporate office, all the guys riding the subways are robots with their robot iPods.?
Moors added, ?I gave everyone at UVPHACTORY an assignment and encouraged them to let their imaginations and creativity run wild, to enjoy themselves. For me the greatest challenge was the creation of the robots ? to make them original. Everyone is making robots these days but I am really in love with our little character. He is a cartoon-y mix - a modern Steamboat Willie actually modeled on Pete Miser himself. He wears baggy shorts, has big hands, short arms and a lazy gait, like a young urban hip hop kid. The end product is fresh and sunny, which is much harder to create than dark and cynical.?
UVPHACTORY Senior Designer/3D Animator/Compositor Jake Slutsky stated, ?I was responsible for the 3D lighting and texturing and also handled the transition of elements from 3D to compositing. After testing several looks, Alex and I really wanted to create a unified aesthetic, to match the red/white hues of the treated footage. Using Softimage XSI's toon shader as a base, we built custom shaders to couple the hard-edged toon look with a more natural soft shading. In order to achieve shorter render time, we overlayed 3D wireframe captures and utilized compositing techniques to more clearly illustrate and pronounce 3D elements within the space. The transition from 3D to 2D was exceptional thanks to a plugin by MindThink Tools that allowed us to export the XSI camera animation to After Effects. With this plugin we were actually able to lay in 2D graphics and different overlays within 3D space without having to produce everything in XSI. This kept the work flow pretty flexible, design oriented, and allowed the treatment to mature into the final look."
?UVPHACTORY took my story line and crafted the perfect visual representation of the song. The video is so pro, so creative and so absolutely mind-blowing I have to admit I got 200% more video than I ever expected. UVPHACTORY is an amazingly talented group. I was blown away by their efforts, their work is brilliant and, as it turns out, I am far better looking as a cartoon character!,? added Pete Miser
The UVPHACTORY creative team responsible for the live action shoot and the remarkable animation included Principle/Co-Founder Scott Sindorf; Principle/Co-Founder Damijan Saccio; Creative Director Alexandre Moors, Senior Producer Brian Welsh, Director of Photography (Live-Action) Nick Tramantano, Senior Designer/3D Animator/Compositor Jake Slutsky, Lead Character Animatior Ryan Bradley, Designer/3D Animator/Compositor Bashir Hamid, Compositor/Designer Colin Hess, Editor Damien Baskette and Production Assistant Alexis Stein. UVPHACTORY directed the project.
UVPHACTORY utilized Adobe After Effects 6.5, Apple Final Cut Pro 4.5, Softimage|XSI 4.0, Adobe Photoshop CS and Adobe Illustrator CS in the completion of this project.
Executive Producer Peter Ho represented Ho-Made Media.
Appearing in the music video were Pete Miser as himself; Maya Azucena (wife); Ananda Sahihi (Baby Daughter); Tom Reed (Boss); Lauren Kruse (Secretary); Joseph Yoon, DJ Blowout, Daryl Reilly, Keita Williams (Office Workers); and Ryan Bradley and Damijan Saccio (Subway Commuters).
About UVPHACTORY
UVPHACTORY is a New York-based design and production company offering a complete range of creative services including conceptualization, live-action direction and production, editorial, 2D/3D animation, sound composition/design and final compositing for broadcast, commercial, film, music video and web clients.
Since the company?s formation in 2000, UVPHACTORY has attracted a diverse client base including AT&T, Bravo, Cartoon Network, CBS, Cendant, Cinemax, Cingular, Coca-Cola, Comedy Central, ESPN, FOX Sports, General Electric, HBO, IBM, IFC, Miramax, MTV, NBC, Scripps Networks, SCI FI Network, Showtime, USA, US Cellular, VH1, and VOOM HD Network, among many others.
UVPHACTORY is headquartered at 44 Trinity Place, Suite 3, New York, New York 10006; Phone 212-483-0040; Fax: 212-483-9371; For more information, or to see a reel, contact Senior Producer Brian Welsh. Visit the UVPHACTORY website at http://www.uvphactory.com
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