Creative collective Psyop recently completed LOTTOLAND, a :30 CG animated spot for the Colorado State Lottery via Karsh & Hagen, Denver. The spot began airing late January 2004.
Psyop collaborated with designer Justin Fines to anthropomorphize lotto balls and give them their own parallel world -- a unique ball town. They experimented with different looks and shadings to create a unique dimensional feel and in the end came up with a fresh style of 3D animation and rendering.
With playful animation in six simple and fun vignettes, LOTTOLAND tells the stories of the lucky lotto balls that are sucked out of their daily life and chosen for the big event -- the Colorado State Lottery. A lotto ball band is playing as the bass player is sucked away, a pair of lotto balls are on the slopes and when one hits a jump only the skis return -- they are oblivious to what is going on in Ball Town.
"It was really exciting to not only design the look and feel of a whole world and the characters within it, but also to use our skills to tell several stories in 30 seconds where we are usually only working with one story or just a defining a visual style," said Psyop's Todd Mueller.
Technology used: Global Illumination, Soft Image XSI, After Effects and Flame.
New York City-based Psyop (www.psyop.tv) is a creative collective focused on providing visual solutions for television commercials and the broadcast industry. Founded by three creative directors and two technical directors pulled from the ranks of MTV, the Sci Fi Channel, Nickelodeon and Lee Hunt, Psyop is an inspiring culmination of creativity, collaboration and production.
Since opening in April 2000, Psyop has created spots for a number of top brands including AT&T, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Intel, Ford, Lugz, Merrells, Starbucks, Volkswagen and VH1.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
