Newsletter 02

The new Fusion website

If you’re reading this as an email newsletter, please take a moment to visit the new Fusion Digital Productions website. A portfolio of still renders is now online. In order to view the portfolio you must create an account. Once you’ve created an account, you will be emailed a verification link. You can then log in to your account, fill out any pertinent information and click “View site” at the top of the page to gain access to the portfolio.

The Volkswagen Palm reader

Did you know you have a little VW in your genes? That’s the premise for a new multimedia campaign created by LaBov and Beyond Marketing & Communications. Fusion Digital Productions created an animated opening for the multimedia campaign.

The animation opens with a strange blue landscape covered by white roads. As the camera races down the roads with increasing rate, the camera pulls back and the viewer realizes they are actually “racing” down a blue and white palm print: the logo for the VW Palmreader.
Fusion was responsible not only for creating the blue and white “landscape” but also for the animation sound design. A recording of a Volkswagen GTI racing around a test track in Germany served as source material for the sound effects.

The final animation will appear on the Volkswagen website, as well as part of a touring multimedia package. The multimedia presentation premiered at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO (http://tevamountaingames.com/) and will tour the country appearing at ski resorts and other extreme sports venues.

Phil Vischer’s Jellyfish Labs

Phil Vischer is best known for creating VeggieTales, one of the most popular children’s programs of all-time. Phil continues to write VeggieTales episodes while recording the voice of “Bob the Tomato” and other characters on the show.

However, his current project is called Jellyfish Labs. Recently, Phil wrote a script for Jellyfish Labs that entailed a German scientist named Dr. Schniffenhowzen explaining “God’s Amazing Universe”. In the piece, a holographic projection of the Earth and sun was needed as a visual to explain what would happen to the Earth and sun if gravity changed.

Following the script, Fusion delivered an animation that included an Earth burning like a marshmallow on fire and a sun “poofing” into a puff of smoke. The final video will be shown at Jellyfishland.com.

You can also read an incredible story of success, failure and faith in “Me, Myself and Bob” by Phil Vischer. (click here)

Mudboxing Bread

One of the most common misconceptions I’ve encountered are people who are uncertain if an object can be rendered into 3D. Commonly, people think that an item is too difficult, complex, organic, mechanical, unusual, or just simply seems impossible to create in 3D. The good news is that I can take this opportunity now to explain how anything you can think of can be created in 3D.

One example is creating a loaf of bread in 3D. The key is it’s important in any 3D rendering to use the proper tools. Just as you wouldn’t try to make real bread using a wrench and hammer, you can’t successfully create 3D bread with typical 3D software.

At Fusion we use software called Mudbox. Mudbox was developed for Peter Jackson’s company, Weta Digital, during the production of the Universal Pictures film, King Kong to allow them to sculpt virtual characters in 3D. Mudbox works like digital clay. It gives the artist the ability to create incredibly complex organic shapes. In this case, the organic shape happened to be bread.

So when you begin to dismiss a difficult project as something that can’t be done in 3D, reconsider this thought. Whether it’s 3D bread, a multi-motion actuator, the planet Earth, or an orthopedic procedure, Fusion can make it a reality.