By design, viewers do not realize the immense amount of detail that goes into making a television commercial. It is the essential job of a Special Effects Artist to make his or her work invisible to the viewer. This was the task of the AIC staff as they worked to take the concept provided by Al Paul Lefton Company and transform it into a tangible experience for Select Greater Philadelphia’s television debut.

According to Chris Sladek, Editor, “When we first heard the idea, we saw it as a significant challenge, but as with any project, all that matters is getting the entire team on the same page and making what’s being depicted look believable.”  Just as a viewer will catch a “jump cut” in a movie, a spectator can just as easily see if a composite is missing something.  People will admire a successful commercial, but a critical eye will often notice irregularities between the animated and the real.  It takes a carefully coordinated marriage of precise cinematography, computer generated graphics and compositing in order to create a world that is believable to the viewer.

Due to the nature of the project, which largely consisted of composited imagery, the bulk of the work was done in Adobe After Effects and assembled in Final Cut Pro. The creative team compiled plates from still and motion elements to create the inspiring environments in the spot.  As Fred Segro, Editor/Animator, described, “What appears to be one continuous shot from space zooming down to a few miles above Philadelphia is actually two separate compositions of close to 100 layers stacked and distributed through a 3D space.”  The graphics and photography teams supplied Freddie and Chris with an assortment of imagery that best represented Philadelphia’s business culture.

The significant difference between the Select Greater Philadelphia spot and other projects done at AIC was how the color grading was completed.  The majority of color correction for the spot was done in After Effects, whereas on most projects, AIC more frequently grades in Apple Color.  According to Chris, “Color is usually seen as a superior program when it comes to color correction but the tools in After Effects, when used properly, can achieve very similar high quality results.  In this case, performing basic color grading in After Effects saved a lot of time, as well.”  Color was then used for the final color grading for broadcast.

View the Select Greater Philadelphia spot in our Showcase.