Animated Teaser for Cheetos Pop-up Restaurant in LA
This looping video is the handy work of motion graphics artist Kyle Wood. It was created for an online promotion of a Cheetos inspired celebrity chef pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles, CA.
Deconstructing A Still Image
With only a still image provided, we needed to bring this to life for a looping six second Instagram video. First task was to create a version of the neon sign turned off, then create connective wires and relight it. The brick needed to be lit 3 dimensionally to show the light accurately against the brick surface and edges. The images were combined and animated to create a flicker-on effect.
Heating It Up
Next it was onto removing the grill at the bottom and replacing it with burning wood and coals. The burning wood was animated with a technique similar to the fire animation described below.
Animated Procedural Flames - How To
Seamless Looping Flames: The trick with the flames was to take them from a single still shot to motion and then make them loop seamlessly. To do this we used computer generated procedural textures and animated them against each other, one moves slower, the other faster. Animating them on top of each other on various layers with multiple composite controls, resulted in an undulation of organic shapes moving upwards simulating flames. See example below for a diagram of how this was done.
Post Production
Finally animated vector masks were created to contain the flames and define their shapes and origin points. As a finishing touch, the fire was given a large outer glow to help light up the environment. A flash was added here and there to give more realism, a slight motion blur was added and Viola!
