John Bigboote Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 I apologize. You can take this thread down. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 16, 2007 Admin Posted March 16, 2007 Congratulations! What a thrill to have a CG character of your own on everyones TV screens. The constant repetition of 'Belle-Tire' sure can be irritating but one thing is for sure... no one should forget 'Belle Tire'! Good to have you back Matt. Quote
martin Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Martin- This is the work that has pulled me away from TWO, sorry to say. It has been all consuming. Matt! Are you making a living!? Shame on you! Quote
KenH Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 I apologize. You can take this thread down. Huh? Where's it gone? I want to see Belle Tire. Quote
Dhar Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Yeah! I didn't get a chance to see it either. What's up with that? Quote
Paul Forwood Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Type "Belle Tire" into YouTube and Matt's animation will pop up. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 16, 2007 Admin Posted March 16, 2007 Slight misunderstanding there. Martin too cryptic/Matt too confused. The link: Matt's 'Belle-Tire' commercials now playing on Youtube! Quote
John Bigboote Posted March 16, 2007 Author Posted March 16, 2007 I apologize to Martin and all at Hash. I guess I am a little too 'thin-skinned' and I mis-read Martin's humor for criticism. Thanks to Rodney for reposting the link and for being Rodney. Quote
Ganthofer Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Matt, I can't speak for Martin (He's quite capable of doing that himself , but if the comment he made was negative, he could have just as easily removed the post. Quote
KenH Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Yeah. I read that comment as sarcasm/amazement someone is making a living with AM. Why would he be against it. Quote
mfortunato Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 I also read it as a joke. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously. I would think he would be thrilled that someone was using A:M for a commercial endeavour. A:M has been used for video games and for commercials. It's good publicity for the software and thusly for the company. I doubt he meant it negatively. btw - excellent animation on the commercials. I really enjoyed them. "Belle Tire!" "Belle Tire!" - Michael Quote
Gorf Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Funny the way people read things in different ways. I saw Martin's post as a fun reminder that he doesn't expect work on TWO to take priority over paid work. Perhaps he needs to use more smilies - unless it's me that's read it wrong. Quote
John Bigboote Posted March 16, 2007 Author Posted March 16, 2007 I apologize to Martin and all at Hash. I guess I am a little too 'thin-skinned' and I mis-read Martin's humor for criticism. Thanks to Rodney for reposting the link and for being Rodney. And I am the WORST at using emoticons...but now I see their value. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 16, 2007 Admin Posted March 16, 2007 So... until Martin clarifies that you are really in the dog house, need to pack your bags and should skip this year's Birthday... Tell us about your commercial! The ideas. The production. The deadlines. The 'will this ever get done' panic. The tire! Quote
oakchas Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Missed Martin's comment, oh well... Probably misinterpreted. John, good stuff! Glad someone can make a living with A:M and do big things, without becoming "too big" for the community. Thanks for sharing. Charlie Quote
martin Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 Martin- This is the work that has pulled me away from TWO, sorry to say. It has been all consuming. Matt! Are you making a living!? Shame on you! Of course I want you to make a living with A:M! What better way to spread the "Word of A:M" to the unbelievers?! "Making A Living" comes before "TWO," and "TWO" comes before "sex and homelife." (Humor alert: "TWO" only comes before sex.) Quote
John Bigboote Posted March 16, 2007 Author Posted March 16, 2007 So... until Martin clarifies that you are really in the dog house, need to pack your bags and should skip this year's Birthday... Tell us about your commercial! The ideas. The production. The deadlines. The 'will this ever get done' panic. The tire! Now that I re-read Martins reply... I see it in the right light... This was an interesting job. Our sales rep came to me late on a Wednesday (2/28) as I was out the door. Said we had a chance to 'steal the Belle Tire account' if our numbers were right and if we could take-over the 'Tireman' 3D model from our cross-town competitor who made it in Maya. Now, I knew that would NEVER happen...nobody who loses an account sends off their animation models...NOBODY. Our Maya guys gave an estimate of 1 week to recreate 'TireMan' and walked away...I went right to work on it the next day. Good thing. Thursday evening as I had just hit render on a 360 spin of my TireMan model the sales rep burst into my room..."The account is all ours IF we can prove RIGHT NOW that we can do the tireman!" I stopped the render, 1/4 way thru...and played it for him. He demanded I send a Quicktime movie pronto. The next day...Friday noonish-I was playing around with my now rigged model(TSM2) when we heard..."WE won the account!" This was big! It's a LOT more than just animation...editorial,production,sound/radio, media-management...the WORKS! The rest of the job was a dream. A:M performed flawlessly, my client LOVED everything I did, hit the deadlines like butter and now it's on the air all over the place...pure saturation. More spots to come. So I put it on YouTube and saw Martin's reaction (above) and over-reacted and panicked. Figured at least my MOM will like it. Tireman is your usual low-spline A:M model. DarkSim textures give him a nice velvetty rim-lit hat,pants-sleeves. A displacment map puts the tread on him. Lots of bones in the face and pose-sliders for lip-synch, blinks...etc. Rotoscopes were used to match him into the scene, and lighting was 'almost' default. Final touches added in After Effects, and I sent Quicktimes to the editor who used an Avid DS Nitris to finalize the spots. Thanks! for all the interest. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 16, 2007 Admin Posted March 16, 2007 Matt, That's just what I was hoping for in a 'behind the scenes'. There are a lot of lessons learned here. Martin is a nice guy but he is oft misunderstood. Its -more than- okay to work on spec. Always use Animation:Master. Studios may need Maya too. Youtube is easy to search. Trust in your instinct but never jump to conclusions. ...and on and on and on. Thanks Matt for the inside scoop. Congrats again. Quote
goodguy20k Posted March 16, 2007 Posted March 16, 2007 And that you should always shop Belle-Tire! Quote
itsjustme Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 That was a great job, Matt! Congrats on landing the account! Quote
Tralfaz Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 Pretty impressive. Congratulations on a job well done! Al Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2007 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2007 What a great story! congratulations. That should be on Hash's testimonial page. Hope you're a hero at work now! Quote
heyvern Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 Ahhhhhhgggggg! Belle-Tire!!! Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... I see it... everywhere now. it's in my brain. I can't hide from it. When I get up in the morning I see tiny tread marks on the floor. I hear the muffled cry of "Belle-Tire" behind the closed bathroom door. It uses all the hot water for its showers! It ate all the cereal and used all the milk! Last night I heard it rustling under my bed. It talks in its sleep... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... How much more of this can I take? I don't know. That horrible smiling face! Does it never get angry? Does it never get sad? When I scream and rave at it it only smiles innocently and says "Belle-Tire". I beg it to write down the phone messages but the notes say "Belle-Tire called at 2:00". I only have one choice left. I will go mad if I don't. Please forgive me... uh... wait... no... stop that... you can't... stop it! Stop it! Get away from me.... Belle-Tire Belle-Tire Belle-Tire Belle-Tire HAHAHAHHAH Belle-Tire. -vern -Belle-Tire Quote
Bruce Del Porte Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 Nice job! Recreating a known character is almost harder. Bravo! Quote
heyvern Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 Vern... Decaf. Belle-Tire? Seriously though. I LOVE this Tireman character. This is one of those wonderful simple advertising gimmicks that can gain cult status. What an incredible opportunity! A character that can only say one thing. You could do so much with that. I hope he never gets more lines. The expression on his face at the end of that one commercial where he kind of shrugs because there isn't anything else to say but "Belle-Tire" is priceless. Does anyone remember the very small "bit" character in Tron? It was literally a "bit" and could only say yes or no. And yet was hysterically funny. Jeff Bridges was its straight man. I always wished that character hung around longer. -vern Quote
goodguy20k Posted March 17, 2007 Posted March 17, 2007 I was watching Tron just last night. I agree, simplicity is key! Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.