Sprint “Speed Monsters”

[flv:http://motionographermedia.com/threeleggedlegs/sprint_nascar.flv 468 351]QuickTime version | High-quality version on Beam.tv

Looks like Sprint and agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners are going to run with the light-tracing gimmick for a little while longer. In its latest incarnation, light is used to add character to a grim cast of NASCAR vehicles as they wage war on the battlefield of the racetrack.

The music seems to slow the pacing and dilute the drama a bit, but there are some great details to be enjoyed in the animation, completed in part by the wunderkinds at Three Legged Legs. (The end tag was apparently executed by Buck.)

Technical details can be found on The Mill’s site, who handled the compositing. (Thanks, Igor!)

Full credits

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.

15 Comments

goldpackage

i’d have to bet if you were one of them there nascar junkies you’d see some more symbolic meaning here… but even without it i love the character design and playfulness. feels like a step forward in the campaign. me likey.

igor

goto the-mill.com

ClancyMcGruder

This is one for the record books! What an awesome piece. I want to marry Three Legged Legs. The beam.tv version is a must-watch, as the main video up there doesnt really play very well.

justin

I agree, the HD is awesome. Are you having trouble with the embedded playback? I’ve been testing it out on an experimental basis, and I haven’t heard anything negative yet. What kind of problems are you having?

ClancyMcGruder

i mean…

maybe its just this here Opera browser, but it plays at like 15 fps or some such. But that’s just on my shits, ya know?

goldpackage

same for me… hd version is so killer. and once you watch it that way you can tell much is being lost in the embedded.

justin

Yeah, no doubt that HD version is better. But I’m trying to get the embedded looking acceptable for times when I don’t have an HD version available to reference (which is like 99% of the time).

I’ve updated the embedded version with a newer video, and the frame rate looks much smoother to me now. Let me know what you guys think. (Make sure to clear your cache.)

You can send me email at justin@motionographer.com.

justin

By the way, the “HD” version on Beam.tv is really just a 640×480 QT scaled up to double size.

Marc B.

Hmm not sure if i dig the animations and style. I think it rather looks like drawings on live footage instead of light paintings as in the first spots. The first one was great because it was done with real lights. Not that this one could’ve been done with real lights but i’m just sayin’.

doodoobrwn

i saw this on a big ass hd tv and it looked outstanding, might even be the best in this campaign. great work and congrats to all involved. and i overwhelmingly love the animations and the style but if i had to point to one thing maybe the compositing feels a bit rushed or just not finessed enough. but overall it’s really special.

monovich

I have no love for NASCAR, but this spot won me over, for a moment it actually made NASCAR seem dramatic and cool. Nice work!

goldpackage

i agree justin the embedded looks way better now. and i love watching this thing because i catch new stuff each time.

griff

They make for great stills but having watched it the light traces were rendered redundant by some phenomenal sound design.

makethelogobigger

definitely looks like line drawings, not light paintings. didn’t take this campaign to the next level.

zeniamai

I think I got tears in my eyes… Love the drama… It really brough out the drama in NASCAR… Love it…

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