Motion Design - Blog 4

Digital Domain is an American visual effects and animation company. The company was founded by film director James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. It is located in Venice, Los Angeles, California. The company creates innovative digital imagery for feature films, advertising and games. Digital Domains created an interesting TV commercial for a very famous client, Adidas. The TV commercial was named “Unstoppable” where Tracy McGrandy is the main basketball star.

The “Unstoppable” commercial uses a combination of advanced techniques. Some of those techniques include background simulation, 3D animation & modeling, and virtual lighting. All of those techniques used is what makes this commercial look realistic but also very creative. Having 3D animated miniature helicopters throwing ropes to Tracy to stop him from playing basketball really brings action to the scene. The rhythm of the commercial (timing, speed, and action) begins to increase by adding miniature cars that get on Tracy's way, and also by having little men in white who are falling and parachuting towards his body to stop him from playing basketball. The concept is brilliant and well explained which is basically saying that as long as you are using Adidas brand (shoes, shirts) you can’t never be stop in a game. Tracy ends up by slam ducking a basketball after getting through a miniature “army” who wanted to stop him. To really show the action I like the high angle shot in the middle of the commercial, it really shows everything that is going around the basketball court and you can see the basketball star really being attacked from every angle. The low shot angle adds more action because it shows soldiers on miniature cars also throwing ropes to stop Tracy and this makes the ad even more interesting by making you feel that you are there. The low shot is also used well because it doesn’t only reveal the action on the ground but it also puts emphasis on the Adidas logo on the shoes (smart thing to do). The slow motion pace when Tracy is slam dunking the ball in the air tends to slow down the rhythm and action to get the point cross, and show what you can do if you wear Adidas. The music is based on the sound effects of the objects (helicopters, cars, parachuting air effects) which creates the “music action”. The ad is very effective and I would definitely buy Adidas over Nike. I have used Adidas shoes all my life simply because they are light and comfortable which makes me understand the commercial even more.

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Coyne, Patrick. “Television Commercials.” Communications Arts Dec. 2005: pg. 130. Print.