VIRTUAL CAMPUS WORLD
Role: Creative Direction Motion Design, 3D Animation, 3D Modelling
Company: Art of Problem Solving
Published: 2023
Every individual has a different way of approaching problems. In AoP’s virtual campus, we export our model into the digital space by providing face-to-face interactions online with professors that push their students to think critically in order to find solutions to life’s situations. Critical thinking is like solving a rubix cube - there is no one ‘perfect’ solution, and solving it involves a deep process of introspection and reflection until we finally find the answer that best resonates with our pattern of thinking as it is reflected upon the world.
When we tie in this metaphor to our virtual campus, this process of self reflection unfolds before us like a series of interlocking mazes inside a virtual world where students are learning more about their peers, professors, and themselves in the process of solving problems. As the maze locks into place and we’re able to step outside to gain a top down perspective, we gaze upon a uniform rubix cube that becomes our AoPS logo - the vessel that houses the virtual campus, and our curriculum as a whole.
THE PIPELINE
Every individual has a different way of approaching problems. In AoP’s virtual campus, we export our model into the digital space by providing face-to-face interactions online with professors that push their students to think critically in order to find solutions to life’s situations.
AI EXPLORATIONS & SKETCH
With the development of new AI text-to-image tools, we decided to experiment new & more efficient ways to develop pre-viz assets to guide our stakeholders to a more accurate vision of our finished product. Since the production of 3D assets is lengthy and time consuming, having an accurate depiction of what the finished product would look like (beyond just a sketch), not only made the decision-making process for our stakeholders much easier, but it also gave me very solid ground on which to move forward.
With the help of Midjourney, I rendered various different assets based on my concept for this ad campaign and composited them using After Effects (raw assets and results pictured below). Although the AI's generations weren't geometrically perfect, they were never intended to be part of the finished product - all final assets were re-created and animated in Blender from scratch. However, the tone and composition of Midjourney's generation guided the final results to an exponential degree, with very little back-and-forth between myself and our stakeholders.
Overall, using AI as an advanced pre-visualization tool (as opposed to the final product) made the artistic process much more efficient and enjoyable between all the parties involved.
THE BUILDING BLOCKS
After gaining approval of our AI mock ads by our stakeholders, I proceeded onto designing all of our 3D assets in Blender and compositing the finals in After Effects. Some of them followed the AI mock ads more closely, others took lose inspiration from them. If there is anything this part of the process taught me is the value of human taste in creating coherent design. Midjourney does not comprehend our company, brand values, and story - so we have to do that translation ourselves. Modelling everything in Blender allowed me to fit all of the AI's imaginings into the same world, and add part of my own creativity as well.
Designing these static ads set the stage for the motion ad that was to be the highlight of our campaign, which will be broken down in the next few sections.
BRINGING IT ALL TO LIFE
When it came to compositing all of my 3D renders on After Effects, I went through a rigorous process of compiling all my 3D sequences first and making sure all the camera angles & transitions matched the original storyboard. After the main storyline was down, I proceeded to add lighting and glow effects to make the whole world brighter from what it previously was in its original rendered form.
SOCIAL DELIVERY
Once our main sequence was compositied, rendered, and approved, I began to make social cut downs for advertising on our main Meta Pages. The final results were then tracked by our data analyst, and A/B tested to further increase our CTR and ROI ratios.
CREDITS
Created By: Nestor Tomaselli
Virtual Campus Directors: Ellen Kulinsky, Rebecca Sodervik
Head of Family Experience: Kathy Cordeiro
Data Manager: Allen Bahgn