Hollywood-based visual effects shop Eden FX just delivered a huge, three-minute long CG animation project for client Delphi Productions to appear on the Jumbotron screen at the Daytona Speedway during this weekend's Daytona 500 Event. The piece introduces the winner of Pontiac's Daytona 500 Pace Car Design Contest. It features five animated 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix pace cars (each bearing a paint job designed by one of the five contest finalists) racing from their high-tech factory across the U.S. to the Daytona Speedway, past such landmarks as the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge and New York City. The cars aggressively speed toward the speedway entrance tunnel with the real winning pace car driving out of the tunnel and onto the track. Lead artist Eddie Robinson said, "The approach to the overall look was a sort of stylized version of reality, rather than absolute photorealism. We used a lot of dramatic camera moves, and some flashy tricks." Eden FX's creative team members included lead artist Robinson, Christian Bloch, also a lead artist, artists Foad Afshari and Sean Scott, as well as producer Stephen Pugh. Hardware/software used included: Dual Xeon workstations (2.2GHz, 2GB RAM), running NVidia GeForce Quadro display cards, Newtek's LightWave 3D, Eyeon Software's Digital Fusion and Adobe AfterEffects. Formed in 2000 by John Gross and Mark Miller, Eden FX offers its clients the creation and production of original imagery for projects in all media, including television, film, music video, commercials, and the Internet.
