I partnered with the EY Greater China team to bring their annual CSO Forum's key visual to life. This project required animating a complex visual that symbolized sustainability and innovation, creating a dynamic backdrop for the event's main stage and awards ceremony, and also serving as the cover for their subsequent video release.
Context
The core visual was a captivating sphere featuring a dual environment: a lush ecosystem below with trees and rivers, and a modern, innovative cityscape above with buildings and wind turbines. The challenge was to animate these elements smoothly across two critical aspect ratios—standard 16:9 monitors and the massive, ultra-wide 21:9 LED stage backdrop—while ensuring the final animation was visually engaging, dynamic, and loopable without being distracting during a live event.
Date Completed:
May 2024
Role:
Animator
Involvement:
Layer Separation and Rigging, Custom Animation, Seamless Loop Development, Multiple Aspect Ratio Delivery
Overview
The strategy centered on separating the original design into meticulous layers to enable independent animation of key elements, adding realism and depth. This included rigging the wind turbine blades for rotation, animating a smooth river current, and adding a dynamic, contained water splash. Crucially, the plan addressed the large-format display needs by delivering assets in both standard 16:9 and the required ultra-wide 21:9 ratio for the LED stage.
Challenge
The biggest technical and aesthetic challenge was designing a captivating background animation that maintained a sense of subtlety and calmness while remaining dynamic and seamlessly loopable with a manageable file size. Initial tests with a fast-paced, rotating background proved too jarring for a stage backdrop. A tranquil and non-distracting solution was essential for the awards ceremony environment.
Solution
After meticulously separating all visual layers from the provided design, I executed individual animations for functional elements like the rotating wind turbine blades and the car traveling around the sphere. The background challenge was solved by discarding the aggressive rotation concept and instead implementing a subtly scaling background that mimicked the gentle motion of breathing. This ingenious solution maintained a mesmerizing, calming effect, achieved the necessary seamless loop, and kept the final file size optimized for large-scale stage delivery.
Results
The final animation exceeded expectations, providing a dynamic and high-quality visual experience. The animation played flawlessly on both standard screens and the large, ultra-wide LED stage background during the EY CSO Forum event. The creative team at EY was highly impressed with the execution and the smooth, professional delivery across multiple required formats, successfully providing a visually engaging centerpiece for their major corporate event focused on sustainability and digital intelligence.
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