Steele Studios produces complex CGI shots featured within five-spot “O is the One” campaign.
Santa Monica, CA --
Steele Studios, a leading creator and producer of visual content for television, film, music videos, and commercial projects for Fortune 500 companies, has completed and delivered extensive visual effects work featured within a brand new TV campaign promoting client Overstock.com.
The Steele Studios team created and produced complex CGI shots that are featured within the new, five-spot campaign for Overstock, entitled “O is the One.”
In the first spot, entitled “O is the One,” we see an attractive woman (actress/singer Sonnet Simmons) sitting on her bed, her laptop computer in front of her, focused on the Overstock.com website. A number of red and white “O” images, Overstock’s logo, gently come flying out of the laptop, caressing her. The woman sings, “Anything you want, you’ll find it, O, O, O, O.” We next see the woman standing atop a flying carpet, as she takes a virtual tour of the Overstock online store, and continues to sing. An enormous red and white “O” logo umbrella appears—the woman takes hold of it and continues floating through the virtual shopping mall, as lamps, chairs, bedding and a variety of household furniture gently drift by. The woman sings “O is the One,” as she glides, Mary Poppins-style down into a revolving array of beds. Her fantasy now over and back in her bed, the woman is once again surrounded by swirling “O” logos, as we see the final Overstock.com logo appear.
Regarding his company’s work, Jerry Steele, co-founder Steele Studios, and Creative Director and Colorist for the campaign said, “The Overstock.com project was a long process of CGI and live action integration, with a lot of modeling involved. We start out with storyboards and animatics, which show us the action and all of the different facets we want to put into the job. And once we have all of those laid out, then it’s the very simple process of making things look real, by adding shading and lighting and texturing and animation. We take all of these elements and put them all together, put a bunch of CG lights in it, and render it out and make it pretty. The lamps and beds and sofas and Overstock products, as well as the backgrounds appearing in the spot, are all rendered separately. We put it all together and it works as one cohesive piece. Our goal is to tell a great story that also has a little magic in it.”
Watch the “Making of” featurette, below:
Adds Jo Steele, “This was an enormous project for us—one that required many thousands of man hours to accomplish five spots within a short time span. We approached this campaign as a highly stylized, visually artistic endeavor, one that would convey the ease, gentleness and extensive offerings that our client Overstock.com provides to its client base. We believe our CG work significantly embellishes the message of these spots, and we hope audience members who rely on Overstock.com for their online purchases enjoy these emotionally-driven images as well.”
On August 27 from Salt Lake City, Overstock.com, Inc., announced the launch of its new TV ad campaign introducing the first ever Overstock.com song, "O is the One," sung by up-and-coming artists. In the first series of commercials, the song is performed by new artist Sonnet Simmons, as she floats through a virtual warehouse with an assortment of products encircling her. Future ads will feature other soon-to-be-discovered artists singing "O is the One" in their own musical styles. The song was written for Overstock.com by director/writer Matt Hodgson of Matt Hodgson Directs, with composer Chuck Myers of Big Idea Music providing the score. The song conveys the Overstock.com brand by expressing a strong value proposition that "O is the One" plus the ease of shopping at any hour for a wide assortment of products.
"There is a magical feel to the commercial's futuristic 3-D warehouse, as it displays to the customer the large array of products we offer. Couple that with the music element, a catchy song specific to Overstock.com, and the overall effect is terrific," statesTimothy Dilworth, Overstock.com's Senior Vice President of Marketing.
Overstock.com partnered with VFX artists at the renowned, digital production and post production company Steele Studios of Santa Monica, CA, which has worked on over 2,500 film, TV, and commercial projects during its 17-year history. Also included in these efforts were executive producer Jeff Miller, of Vineyard Productions, cinematographer Matthew Williams, and director of photography and colorist Jeff Tillotson of Lightpress. For continuity, Overstock.com plans to move forward with the same team as it features additional new artists in upcoming spots.
Source: Steele Studios
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.
