Wonder how all those awesome graphics were created for the “Original Of The Species” video? A New York-based design and effects company called Spontaneous used the animation techonology provded by Softimage Co., a subsidary of Avid Technology, Inc.
The secret behind the special effects is found in an Avid Technology press release: “The video for Original of the Species features a digital version of Bono, the band’s lead singer, accompanied by a computer generated woman. Both characters were created using SOFTIMAGEXSI (R) v.5.0 and animated with an alpha version of SOFTIMAGEFACE ROBOT (TM), the revolutionary new digital acting technology that allows 3D artists to achieve realistic, lifelike facial animation for high-end film, post and games projects.”
The press release also quotes Catherine Owens, director of the video and long-time collaborator and friend of U2, “One of the concepts of the video was for Bono to enter and exist in the woman’s private, digital world for a brief moment in time. When we saw an early model of her character, the images were absolutely haunting – we knew that we could achieve exactly what we had imagined. Spontaneous did amazing work to fulfill the band’s vision for the song, which was to deliver an intimate and emotional experience. The band considers it a dazzling work of future animation.”
The press release goes on to quote Lawrence Nimrichter, director of animation at Spontaneous, “One of the biggest challenges on this project was the task of delivering a believable, animated model of Bono, who is so recognizable. The concept of the video was so subtle and elegant that we knew the digital acting element had to be perfect. Once we took the data from the motion capture – or ‘mocap’ – session and brought it into Face Robot, we knew we had it. The animation was so clean and we were blown away at how convincing it was….this was a high-profile project with an extremely tight deadline, and by having access to Face Robot, we were able to deliver. This technology is truly incredible.”
You can read the entire press release here.
By the way…Avid Technology has strong ties with U2 and the Vertigo Tour. Digidesign, a division of Avid Technology, has been providing a product called VENUE, “an innovative, state-of-the-art live sound mixing and production environment that surpasses the sound quality and functionality of other sound reinforcement mixing systems at a surprisingly affordable price. VENUE was designed to provide operators with the most flexible set of audio tools possible. Each system component is expandable and reconfigurable on a per-show basis, including the D-Show mixing console and digital mix engine, effects plug-ins, the stage and FOH I/O, the digital snake, and the record/playback options.”
The Digidesign press release would excite any audiophile’s inner techie as it explains in excellent detail the extent tha their system and interface allowed up to 96 tracks of audio to be recorded, as well as the combination of ear and wedge mixes it was able to provide to Adam and to Larry, as well as the backline technicians.
Another subsidiary of Avid is M-Audio, a company that provides Keyboard Sonic ReFills, as well as that well-loved M-Audio 02 keyboard that Larry and Adam use during the show.
(c) @U2/Lawrence, 2006