The one line brief from Ashok Leyland, a leading commercial vehicles manufacturers in India, to Showspace, one of India’s top event management companies, was “make it dramatic!â€. Showspace considered various options, including stereoscopic 3D, the ‘Avatar’ kind, where you need 3D glasses to view.
The one line question from Showspace to Nextwave was, “can you people do it?â€
In line with our philosophy of always accepting challenges, we took on the project, although it was an unknown technology for us. The other challenge was to execute it in a tight timeframe.
The major part of the script required a mix of video and 3D animation, where the Executive Director-Marketing of Ashok Leyland, interacts with Mr. U, a 3D animated character. The rest of the presentation was more technical in nature – of engines, gearboxes, and other aggregates.
At every stage of the execution, newer technical challenges sprang in our way, but we overcame them through ingenuity and hard work. The 3D animation was entirely done using Blender, the open-source 3D animation software.
The product launch of the U-Truck vehicles was held on 02 November, 2010. The audience, mostly consisting of Ashok Leyland Dealers, was thrilled as they watched the aggregates of the vehicles popping out of the screen and coming right onto their faces.
As far as we know, this is the first time in India a product launch video has been made using stereoscopic 3D technology.
Below is a short clip from the launch video in the anaglyph format. So, 3D red-blue glasses are required for viewing.
