Surface It.
Motion graphics and VFX for Microsoft's Surface It campaign, working with MRM//McCann. Rotoscoping and animated flow lines added to live-action footage to give the idea of creative flow something you can actually see.
Scope
Client
Style
Partner
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Challenge
(01)
Adding a layer of creativity to live action without it sitting on top of it.
Surface It set out to show Microsoft Surface as part of how people work creatively, which meant finding a way to picture something that has no obvious visual form. The graphics had to feel like they belonged in the scenes rather than floating over them, and the footage was real environments with real people, so anything added had to respect what was going on in frame. The other constraint was audience. It's a business campaign, so the creative layer had to read as energy rather than decoration.
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Solution
(02)
Rotoscoping and 3D Stroke animation used to run the graphics through the scenes.
Working with MRM//McCann, I rotoscoped objects and people across the scenes in After Effects so the animated elements could pass behind and around them rather than always sitting in front. The flow lines were built with Trapcode 3D Stroke, then treated with additional effects to give them movement and depth. Threading those paths through the live action is what sells it: the lines travel through real space, catching around a hand or a screen, so the graphics look like part of the environment instead of an overlay.
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Conclusion
(03)
Graphics that move through the footage rather than over it.
The finished piece gives Microsoft a way to show creative flow as something present in the room, tied to the Surface itself. The roto work means the graphics hold up on close inspection, and the flow lines give the film a through-line that carries from scene to scene. It reads as one continuous idea rather than a series of shots with effects added.
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