If you were lucky enough to attend the Miami stop of the Adobe-MAXON Power Integration Tour earlier this year, you would have been privileged to see a presentation by Manny Gonzalez of Thirdeye Design Group. Manny spoke about the variety of functions that CINEMA 4DTM has to offer and how well it integrates with Photoshop® CS3 and After Effects® software. It was very well received and provided a behind the scenes look into just how well these software packages work together to produce awesome results in animation and graphic design.
The Miami based studio Thirdeye Design Group is an award-winning post-production creative studio, specializing in broadcast, print, film and interactive design. Manny Gonzalez and Alex DiMella head a pool of artists and animators with a wealth of talent and experience. Thirdeye Design Group consists of six designers all having backgrounds in a variety of disciplines. Out of those six there is a technical director, one main animator with Alex also being the creative director. However they are all able to perform their own design work as well as anything the project calls for from start to finish. They also have one producer and two editors.Both Manny and Alex have been in love with graphic design and animation from an early age. Alex could be found drawing and sketching as a boy and his talents grew and expanded commensurately with his age and size. After graduating high school, Alex entered the International Fine Arts College, which is now Miami International University. There he met Manny and a friendship was formed that would not only last through the years, but would see them challenging and supporting each other in their talents and endeavors.
Alex was fascinated with graphic design as well as special effects for movies and animation. After graduation he worked for Chirkinian Communications where he created sports animations for CBS. Alex later began working with Infinite Image, a design studio in Hollywood, Florida. There, Alex collaborated to produce the Superbowl XXX opening, before moving to Tampa where he worked for CPN Design studios. Soon after, he was joined at that studio by Manny. Alex was fascinated with graphic design as well as special effects for movies and animation. After graduation he worked for Chirkinian Communications where he created sports animations for CBS. Alex later began working with Infinite Image, a design studio in Hollywood, Florida. There, Alex collaborated to produce the Superbowl XXX opening, before moving to Tampa where he worked for CPN Design studios. Soon after, he was joined at that studio by Manny.
Always looking to the future, Alex left CPN Studios and formed his own company called “Electric Sheep”. Electric Sheep’s first project was for the feature film “The Holy Man” starring Eddie Murphy. They also created openings for sports packages, put together live action work, and created animations for Sportstown as well as Nickelodeon and MTV Latino. During this time Manny relocated to Miami and began working for USA Broadcasting. The future would see them moving forward to create Thirdeye Design Group.
Manny’s intro into the graphics world came in an entirely different manner. Having studied architecture in high school and college, graduation found him naturally moving into the architecture field and working for a company using AutoCAD software for design and layout. Manny always loved drawing and design and when his brother moved into the commercial art field, he began studying what was involved in that aspect of artwork. Coming from a workflow which encompassed 2D line art, he was immediately intrigued by the color palettes and vibrant look and feel of graphic design. He quickly moved into commercial art and computer animation and found himself working with Alex using one of the first releases of Electric ImageTM software.
At USA Broadcasting Manny was in charge of a collection of smaller networks scattered across the US which included Miami based WAMI TV, New York based KNOX TV, Texas based KSTR television, Atlanta based WHOT-TV (Hotlanta) and many more. His work in this area won many awards. After a couple of years Manny felt that he had gained the experience he needed concerning handling and producing a network package and he was ready to move on to form Thirdeye Design Group. When Manny first opened Thirdeye’s doors he was one of the few design studios specializing in motion animation in Florida at the time. Soon after Alex came onboard and they began concentrating on the local market and quickly stepped ahead of other local studios. The NBA® Miami HEAT was the first client for this new company and they are still with them today. Thirdeye was responsible for all of the on air animation and graphics, as well as some of the graphics and animation for their “In-Arena” program. This included everything from transitions to bump-ins, bump-outs, and the complete branding package. Today, Thirdeye enjoys an impressive portfolio of clients and have received many awards for their creations. Most of their work is done in CINEMA 4D. This includes motion graphics, modeling, texturing, lighting and storyboards, as well as web design.
Manny states, “I would say that ninety percent of our work is done in CINEMA 4D. All of our computers have CINEMA 4D’s Net Render installed, which makes the project move so much quicker. Each designer can access all files and work to update as we move forward through the project . We also find that the shading system in CINEMA 4D is excellent.” One of the most recent projects is preparing the on-air package for the College Football Network’s “College Football Now” series. “College Football Now” is a 30-minute studio-based information show providing viewers with up-to-the-minute news, match-up analysis and discussion on college football, including the latest Top 25 and BCS rankings. “College Football Now” airs four nights a week, Tuesday through Friday at 6:00 PM ET. Manny states, “I would say that ninety percent of our work is done in CINEMA 4D. All of our computers have CINEMA 4D’s Net Render installed, which makes the project move so much quicker. Each designer can access all files and work to update as we move forward through the project . We also find that the shading system in CINEMA 4D is excellent.”
One of the most recent projects is preparing the on-air package for the College Football Network’s “College Football Now” series. “College Football Now” is a 30-minute studio-based information show providing viewers with up-to-the-minute news, match-up analysis and discussion on college football, including the latest Top 25 and BCS rankings. “College Football Now” airs four nights a week, Tuesday through Friday at 6:00 PM ET.
This project involved the complete branding for the show which includes all logos, the opening, the interstitials, transitions, bump-ins and bump-outs and player stats and images (known as baseball cards in the business).
They had to design sixteen different segment animations in CINEMA 4D as well as the intros and exits for each segment. They also created all of the plasma backgrounds for each segment.
Manny explains, “Basically when we deliver these packages, we deliver everything on DVD’s. We include the compressed movies , which the client is then able to plug it into their system. We send them the source files in a HD and SD version of the package. For the NFL package (CFN) College Football Now, the deliverables were in HD1080p and SD 720 format. This included the show opening, bump-ins and bump-outs, transitions, interstitials, segments, monitor loops, billboard backgrounds and baseball cards.”
Thirdeye Design also uses Shake®, Apple’s Final Cut ProTM, Autodesk Maya® for some character animation, Avid® HD systems, Adobe® After Effects®, as well as a Avid Unity file-sharing system which allows them to keep all of their projects organized. They find that CINEMA 4D integrates perfectly with the other programs and transitions seamlessly into After Effects.
I asked Alex about how CINEMA 4D enhanced and aided in their work.
Alex stated: “For me it is because I find it to be very flexible. It also allows me to do some quick cheats and produce the same results thereby saving lots of time. For instance, you can fake HDRI lighting instead of really using it. I find that when I have a short deadline and am under time constraints, CINEMA 4D has so many options that allow me to cut down on production time without loss of render quality or realism. It allows me to manage the rendering, and in a lot of the work we do, I can get it down to 15 seconds per frame while still maintaining high fidelity and quality. You don’t have to sacrifice quality and you don’t have to sit around and wait on a frame to update. It’s extremely fast and I really like that. The instant gratification means a lot to me. It also means the jump to HD really hasn’t been that bad at all. This is especially important when we are all using net render. We can see those frames very quickly in the application, and having the ability to see all of the details on-the-fly is invaluable.”
Thirdeye Design also designed the branding, logos, digital art and animations for the IFL. The International Fight League is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion billed as the world’s first MMA league.
Instead of the established norm for MMA events, where match-ups are strictly one-on-one affairs, each IFL card is a showdown between two teams of five fighters, each fighter fighting one match against another on the opposing team.
The IFL is currently televised in the United States on Fox Sports Net and MyNetworkTV.
When I inquired about any problem projects and how CINEMA 4D aided them in getting the job done, they remembered two such jobs:
“One client was a real estate company and we did a project for them which included the design and presentation of a building that they were going to construct in Miami. It was going to be a two minute long piece and we had to model a city around it. We were pretty much free on how we modeled the city and how we wanted it to look as long as we used their color palette and logo. We tried a bunch of different looks while still being able to manage an entire city environment. It ended up including a lot of polygons. We had to make sure that whatever we created didn’t compromise quality, because we were spending so much time managing the design and modeling. We actually came up with three ideas and then streamlined it down to one. The end result looked really nice and it was very quick to render.
Another client wanted us to use their CAD files of a model reminiscent of the headlamps that Swat teams use when they go into darkened rooms. Kind of like the focal lenses in night vision optical lenses or like a flashlight lens. The CAD models were very intricate electronic pieces and they wanted a really accurate representation of them. The CAD files they sent us were huge, weighing in at around 100 MB per model. Normally models we receive like this are around 1 MB. The geometry was well over 6 million polygons. We cleaned the models of all internal parts so that you couldn’t see much of the internal wiring. The files were then around 50 MB which is still extremely large. However, CINEMA 4D was still able to manage those huge files with no problems.”
Thirdeye Design Group is moving ever forward. To date the team has been awarded 17 Promax Awards, 6 Emmys, a Gracy Award, a Davey Award, a BDA award, an FWA (Favourite Website Awards) Award and a W3 Award. The BDA awards recognize excellence in television advertising and design and the W3 award honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, videos and marketing programs.
Projects that they have completed have also included the logo and branding for WLRN, the south Florida Public Radio and Television networks.
The next project for Thirdeye Design involves putting together a commercial for a robotic arm which is used in automobile manufacturing. It will involve a lot of character animation as well as being photo realistic. It will integrate live action film shooting with animation as well as tracking and integrating 3D elements into the scene. It sounds like another winner to me!
At the end of the next 10 years, Manny and Alex would like to see Thirdeye Design Group with offices in New York and Los Angeles and concentrate on high end commercials as well as movies including film openings, main title presentations and more. As always, they are looking to the future as well as filling the present with unique and cutting edge motion graphics.
When asked what their advice is to those just getting started in the business and really looking for guidance, Manny shared his thoughts.
“I would say email storyboards to animation and design firms. Try to show people what you do in a very creative way. When you are coming out of school you should have a website where you can showcase your work. I get a lot of emails from people wanting to work for us here. I am usually so busy I don’t have time to immediately write them back. But at a later date, if they have a website, then I can go and check their work. As a bonus, their work can be updated on their website as they gain skills.
Alex added:
“Try to stay inspired and be passionate about what you do. If you don’t have that, move on to somewhere you’d really love to be…that way you keep nurturing that passion. Learn as many features as possible in the programs you work in and learn how to produce unique results. In doing this, you will show future clients what separates you from everyone else.”
I feel that you will find the work that Thirdeye Design Group does is innovative, fun, and the examples of realism mixed with animation produce outstanding media presentations. I really enjoyed talking with Manny and Alex and look forward to seeing what’s next on the horizon. Whatever it is, I know we will enjoy it.
You can visit their website here, and for more information about the NFL Network you can go here. NFL Network airs seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a year-round basis and is the first television network fully dedicated to the NFL and the sport of football.
CREDITS FOR THIRDEYE DESIGN GROUP:
Manny Gonzalez – Director
Alex DiMella – Creative Director
Josh Childers – Lead Animator
Robert Corredor – Technical Director
David Uribe – Designer
Cesar Haliwa –Music and Sound Design
John Macdonald – Editor
Frank Linero - Editor
Rosanna Gonzalez –Producer
Stephanie Montero – Assistant Producer
Story by Kathie Berry
