Cisco

The Four-Dimensional Network

ACI

Animation Art Direction

The inner workings of a network can be scary to those who aren't in IT. I art directed a unique, Escher-esque approach to this world for First Person that depicted how advanced networking technology brings order and balance to a mind-bending inner space.

The creative brief for this video wanted to play with the idea that the inner world of a network can be mind-boggling. This can be particularly true for executives who may not understand the complexity but nevertheless task their IT officers to solve mind-bending tech puzzles with limited time and resources.

Working with our creative strategy team, I designed a series of literal larger-than-life puzzle environments that referenced Escher, Penrose, Kubrick, maze-like structures, optical illusions and four dimensional playgrounds.

As our network architect leads us through a day in the life of his IT team, we see that this brain-bending puzzle box can be solved through the use of intent based, application centric technology.

The art direction affected a high-contrast illustration style that pushed line and halftone patterns to give us a colorful, bold and posterized look. Although the animation was done almost entirely in 3D, we felt this distinct 2D rendering look enhanced to otherworldly and illustrative quality of the creative direction.

During the design phase, I devised a set of halftone cel shaders in Cinema 4D that let us use bold primary brand colors while responding to in-scene lighting. This made it really easy to shade objects and characters with our half-tone pattern and get some cool two-or-three tone character looks without having to do a lot of post-compositing in After Effects.