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Imaginary Forces Creates 3D World for IBM Watson

Imaginary Forces partners with Ogilvy New York to create an eight-spot campaign highlighting the complex world of Jeopardy! champion computer Watson for IBM.

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Los Angeles, CA -- Imaginary Forces directors Dan Gregoras and Ronnie Koff teamed up to bring dimensional life to the Jeopardy! champion computer Watson as IBM amplifies the system’s consumer offerings in the latest eight-spot campaign for the 2013 U.S. Open. The campaign out of Ogilvy New York features a series of whimsical spots for IBM’s Watson that carefully illustrates the complex world of Watson through simple, engaging, animated storytelling. IF established a unique visual language as an expansion of the iconic Watson logo, which was then featured on the IBM Watson website as well as additional marketing collateral. The spots demonstrate the “Build a smarter planet” call to action through innovative solutions powered by Watson to help change the way doctors learn, help researchers make breakthroughs, change how consumers ask for help and help improve financial planning.

To reach consumers with the intricate and ever-expanding capabilities of Watson, IBM and Ogilvy sought to deliver a rich visual experience, tapping IF to enlist their extensive film and television experience that would bring a cinematic quality to the campaign. Gregoras and Koff worked closely with the Ogilvy creative team to take the established iconography of Watson and take it one step further by creating a unique motion and tactile quality to the character. They came up with a point of view, camera behavior and a render quality to allow the animations to tell the stories in a playful and engaging manner. The team went into extensive R&D to explore the type of motion, texture and presence that they would use for Watson within the animations. They pulled from numerous sources, including the work of data visualization pioneer Edward Tufte, and enhanced these visual references with luminous 3D animation. Notes Gregoras, “We wanted to do something that was progressive, like Watson itself, and take the recognized flat logo and make it more dimensional.”

Adds Koff, “This was an extremely collaborative team and it was so exciting to have the client ready to run with concepts that we felt most strongly about. It felt like it was a full team of people that were all working towards one concerted goal to truly create something exceptional.”

Source: Imaginary Forces

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.

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