Jaclyn Saik-Looking Outwards 05

Dalmiro Buigues is a 3D graphics and motion designer from Buenos Aires. He is a director at the Argentinian design studio “Buda”, and has created 3D work for a variety of high profile clients like Nickelodeon and FOX. One project that really stood out to me was a series of 6 animations he created for the Argentinian launch of the running shoe NIKE EPIC REACT. Each animation sequence is defined by a descriptions of wearing the shoe, and the resulting video includes graphics that show this paired with actual users describing the experience.

“It’s like riding a marshmallow unicorn.

It’s like jumping into a cotton candy pool.

It’s like a pillow fight in space

It’s like jumping on velvet springs.

It’s like huging a real size jelly bear.

it’s like diving on a cake made of clouds.”

I was drawn to this project because there was so much information published about the process. First, I watched the final video, and the graphics were stunning in their complexity and photorealistic lighting, even though the animated character were cartoons. I think it’s impressive and important to note that the entire video is spoken in spanish, and yet I could understand practically everything that was going on because the visuals were so compelling and informative of the mood. I think Buigues’s main goal was to create a happy-go-lucky feeling with bright colors and big, smilling characters, and juxtapose the seriousness of the shoe and the task of running with the pleasure of comfort and high jumping and other fun activities that he chose to animate.

I think it is especially interesting to see the process work because I can see Buigues’s original sketches, where he was brainstorming the character, and then I can see renderings using photoshop or other 2D-focused software, and then move onto the final stills, where he used CG software to create these fantastic effects like reflected lighting on space helmets and spongey-yet-metallic texture of springs. I am curious about computer graphic software now because I want to learn more about how you can create characters that have set widths and heights and limbs that maintain their form, and then move them within a space so that the light adjusts accordingly. I know this is how they animate most films now, and I think this is one of the most complex and widely consumed forms of computer art today.