Brand new Vista

"In order to do this we had to model the button kind of like an onion with many layers that can peel away into pages of content. Although some particle systems were explored, in the end we had to hand animate these layers to control the desired composition," says Rosenthal.

"Once the animatic was settled on, we began looking at ways to shift the materials from the glass-like nature of the button to the image-based materials found on the Flip 3D geometry or screens.

"We looked at shape shifting or morphing at first, but realized that it was better in the end to set up the animation to overwhelm the screen and create a diversion for the new geometry to slip into frame. A smooth transition was achieved. "We used this technique twice to fragment the button into the Flip 3D interface. Getting through the transformation was only half the battle, because we also had to map dozens of HD videos and images onto the Flip 3D geometry.

"That in itself was quite an organizational task as well as extremely heavy to work on with the gigabytes of animated maps," she adds.

The spot was rendered in Splutterfish Brazil, and the final spot weighed in at a whopping 10,000-x-1,080 pixels. Yet its large size works in its environment.

"For us, it is a thrill to converge video film with the spatial conditions found in the built environment. Many of us have backgrounds in architecture, which have always given us a unique insight into projects like this.

"This project was one where we were not only concerned with how the architecture performs in relation to the human body but how the human mind is capable of absorbing moving imagery as a physical reality.

“By activating the traditional surface qualities of architecture with video, audio and interactivity, we can push the environmental experience," she says.