Pop-Up Branding III: SiriusXM
For my Part III of choice for SiriusXM, my concept was built for “A billboard/screen advertisement that of a large scale, such as Times Square.” This was based off of a SiriusXM advertisement I saw when I visited NY, which was rather static. For reference, here’s a similar example:
It’s quite plain, and in general SiriusXM advertisements are targeted with skits for streaming platforms, not animations in physical areas. I wanted to explore that potential market + style.
This was something ambitious for me, for not only was animation already a time-consuming project, but I was essentially aiming for a week-long feasible project with a software and type of animation I had no background in. However, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to build new software skills, and hopefully motivate myself with something I love: motion design.
Modeling
Starting from scratch forced me to learn the basics, so I spent a good deal of time watching tutorials. In fact, it took me a solid hour just to figure out how to build the base for the logo efficiently:
Each logo was going to be reminiscent of the content of a specific channel SiriusXM provides:
For the most part, this took a lot of material and shader work, but the modeling was more or less the same for each one. Some had more rounded curves, some had extra edges and 3D objects, but in general I made sure the sizing and anchor points were all consistent.
Animating
This was the most difficult part for me, as I have little-to-no experience in 3D animation (and absolutely zero in Cinema4D itself) and I had specific ideas for each one. Essentially, the “parent” animation would be the entire logo group circling (similar to that of a dish in a microwave) while each logo theme would have its own specific child animation.
For the pop channel, the material was already modeled in an iridescent, bubbly manner. Therefore, I wanted to simulate a similar, balloon-inflation like feeling:
It honestly gave more jiggly tofu mechanics, which weren’t the worst but definitely was not the direction I was going for. Because the collisions and inflations had some errors, Michael thankfully helped me troubleshoot and build a sim that could generate inflations seamlessly.
The sports related channel was a little less finicky, more so animating the external assets in a semi-realistic fashion.
Lastly, for the 70’s channel I wanted to respect the flat, bright hipster colors. I thought this would be a fun time to incorporate more of the 2D, toonshader style, so I implemented cel-shaders and flat shadows that gave it a 2D animation feel to it. This was easier for me, as I just recently I learned how to build similar toonshaders in Blender. I combined it with some independent, flat animations and plans I created and exported in Procreate for a bit of a multimedia incorporation.
To wrap it all up I created the default logo with shaders that are easily able to give flat qualities under the right lighting: then, through careful splines for camera panning I can convert it to an orthographic view and transition it to the 2D logo.
I then exported each file individually and stitched them in After Effects; I was careful to standardize each file’s origin point and rotations so that they would all blend together in more or less the same position — allowing both a smoother and more familiar workflow.
I then used the SiriusXM radio app (I don’t have a car on me, haha) to record live commentary and introductions for each channel I needed, and incorporated those audio bits + radio scratches as my video sound.
Final
Reflection
I really enjoyed this final conclusion to our branding series, and I think I pushed myself the best I could for a time when it was expected to start burning out. If I had more time, I definitely would have liked to explore more billboard styles, potential poster designs based on the logo themes, or just more animations in general to have more of a series/system rather than a single advertisement. At the same time, it feels rewarding to successfully create something in such a short time frame, knowing that I didn’t shirk with the limited time given. I took a bit of a gamble, knowing that if some of the transitions or execution didn’t work out I’d be extremely disappointed, but I’m proud with the product I was able to bring out for the end of this fall semester.
