Xbox Sparkle - A 2D and 3D Animation Film

•

Xbox Sparkle Film

When PowerA approached us to create a launch film for their new Xbox Sparkle controller, we were excited to tackle the creative challenges involved. To begin, the creative brief involved producing a film in both 2D and 3D which is a huge challenge in itself. There needed to be consistency with the art on the controller packaging as well as with the photography campaign created by the creative team at PowerA.

Below is a photo from the ad campaign and the graphics for the packaging:

Another creative challenge with this project was lighting the controller. This controller has glitter embedded into the face plate of the controller which lights up in different colors depending on the angle and light which hits it. As you can see in the above images, you have different shades of purple being reflected in different parts of the controller. In the packaging art, we see shades of yellow and green popping out which makes this controller incredibly unique.

VM had to come up with a solution to help the viewer see how the sparkle of the controller changes as light moves across it.

Below is an initial animatic blending both the 2D and 3D worlds:

So how did we do it? The creative solution was to begin in the 2D world, tilt up to the stars above our landscape and see a two start collision resulting in an explosion teleporting us into the 3D world. After we move around the 3D world with several macro shots of our sparkle controller, we enter a black hole through the controller to port ourselves back to the 2D animated world where our 3D product softly lands. Here is a breakdown of the explosion:

A 3D and VFX breakdown of the explosion shot in the Xbox Sparkle Film using Cinema 4D and After Effects.

What tools were needed to create this film? As a 2D and 3D hybrid project we used three tools to execute the vision:

1. After Effects

2. Cinema 4D

3. Houdini (For particle simulations)

What about sound design? The sparkle controller definitely reminded us of stars and space which helped inspire the "big bang" explosion and nebula. Music was not needed for this film as we wanted the viewer to feel the landscape through soundscape and effects. We used a combination of cosmic soundscapes along with chimes to help the viewer to hear the sparkle they were seeing on screen.