DesignInMotion posts English & Pockett Unveils New On-Air Identity for Romanian State TV, a rather in-depth article about TVR rebranding, targeted mainly at the motion design community, hence full of technical details. Here is an excerpt:

« A collaboration among Brandient, English & Pockett and Clear Ltd.'s inferno*, Shake and 3D teams resulted in two original and creative IDs for Romanian television. The on-screen identity for TVR1 establishes a concept of "Forward Looking." Director Michael Berthon devised the IDs for TVR1 with a theme of focusing on "vanishing points." Point-of-view images, shot on location around Romania, are used to reflect the optimism and sense of direction at the heart of TVR's flagship channel.

The on-screen identity for TVR2 takes the form of a journey through an abstract landscape, reflecting the warm, emotional tone of TVR2's entertainment and lifestyle programming. The ID for TVR2 employs sophisticated animation to produce myriad twisting, morphing and dispersing geometric shapes that dissolve into the logo "curl" that identifies the channel.

Clear 3D artists Adam Seeley and Josh George spent four weeks creating the new identity for TVR2, with final composites completed by Jonny Hicks in inferno*. The result is a seamless :20 animation that uses the "R" in the channel's logo in an energy curl motif; the curl flows and peels apart through a changing golden landscape, eventually returning to its original place within the logo.

The clear team used SOFTIMAGE|XSI to create various versions of the curl, with hierarchies of deformations, shape animations and expression-driven twists to deliver the requisite creative control. A surface incidence shader took the place of normal illumination to ensure that surfaces matched perfectly during transitions between the different forms.

Compositing, 3D and stabilization work on the TVR1 spot was completed by the combined efforts of Clear's inferno*, Shake and 3D departments under the guidance of Clear head of commercials Simon Gosling. »