SCAD x The Mill Week 1: Concept & Previs

Early in the week, our team found ourselves at a crossroads regarding our concept. Apt commentary from Prof. Gaynor and Prof. Fowler inspired us to be absolutely certain that the final product was wholly specific to Vespa. We had already settled on a central element: the Vespa would transition from one state to another using the paint-chipping effect that Wei-Lin had drafted in Houdini.

This transition could facilitate several different state changes, and we had zeroed in on two possibilities.

Idea #1 Transition from Brand-new to customized.

Visualization done in Maya Arnold.

The pristine paint would flake off to reveal a scuffed, lived-in surface, adorned with stickers and maybe paint. Other accessories could include a new helmet, custom tires, or a pet carrier installed on the back. While the paint transition would be through a houdini effect, the rest of the transition would be achieved with a simple wipe, hidden by a column moving past the camera and roto’d in post.

One con of this idea is that the final shot would be selling a used vespa rather than a clean new model. The major thing we’re struggling with is what the story is. While we felt that the story was inherent to the personalization aspect, Professor Fowler brought up the important point: why Vespa?

So we stepped back and looked at how we could incorporate the specific story of Vespa in our ad.

Idea #2

Transition from a 1940s wartime Vespa to a classic Vespa model in 2023.

Starting in a sepia-toned cobblestone alleyway, a metallic green vespa is adorned with a metal helmet and surrounded by wartime-era posters and signs (possibly a storefront that reads “just opened”). Paint begins to flake off and a vibrant blue coat of paint shines through. As the camera wipes between environments, the world becomes more saturated. The cobblestone is now paved over, the shop now reads “since 1946”, and the metal helmet is replaced with a large spherical plastic helmet.

One pro of this idea is that the final shot would highlight a brand-new Vespa while still grounding it in a naturalistic environment. The most daunting aspect is how much environmental work would be required.

At the time of writing, we are going ahead with Idea 2. After Emma went through multiple drafts of storyboards, I was tasked with creating a previsualization of the ad. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cZ7uxb6RMjzx0hi6GQZIE-bLgK77hJti/view?usp=sharing

Sticking to the primary four shots, I created the previs in Maya Hardware Renderer 2.0, which allowed me to roughly visualize how material and animated sunlight would play into our concept. Models were scouted by Emma and Sarah, and the paint-chipping effect was Created by Wei-Lin.

We are excited to present on Tuesday and eager to hear feedback!