Apple Device Ads, How are they made?

[Futhark]

Hi all, I've been watching the videos of the iPhone 5C & 5S and i'm blown away with the quality of these videos, what i'd love to know how do you achieve results like this? for example they show iPhones spinning slowly by themselves so you can get a 360 degree look at them, in the 5C video the colours are one behind the other then they magically fan out on their own to show them all off and lastly they do an awesome animation for the camera lens and new touch ID where both devices break apart and show the new parts inside.

I find this absolutely amazing and would love to know how you can go about doing video like this, what software is used and more importantly where can you learn how to use it

Thanks in advance

 

[Siderz]

It's definitely CGI, and as for the software, who knows, maybe they have a team like Pixar, or even Pixar themselves doing it?

Nobody is credited, and the people working on it would have signed an NDA prohibiting them from talking about it since they essentially get to see the products early.

 

[Futhark]

It's definitely CGI, and as for the software, who knows, maybe they have a team like Pixar, or even Pixar themselves doing it?

Nobody is credited, and the people working on it would have signed an NDA prohibiting them from talking about it since they essentially get to see the products early.

Yeah i never thought of that, i've seen people make similar videos as jokes on youtube but maybe they've just taken actual footage and added the actor interviews themselves

 

[martinX]

Here's a story about shooting the photos. Not what you asked for, but an interesting read nonetheless.

 

[Siderz]

Here's a story about shooting the photos. Not what you asked for, but an interesting read nonetheless.

Wow! Thanks for that. I thought all the promotional pics were CGI.

Makes me question the videos, I'm assuming that the exploded view of things definitely are though.

 

[Tylers86]

I imagine there is a combination of renders and actual footage being used.

As far as the tools, it is most likely they are using 3D Studio Max and/or Maya from Autodesk. Results can also be achieved with alternatives like Cinema4D, Blender and others.

Compositing is probably done in After Effects, although Apple has their own compositing application called Motion. However its likely they out source this kind of work to some high end service provider similar to Industrial Light and Magic, but with an emphasis on corporate.

Here is a tutorial of someone making an iPhone model in Max I found online to give you an idea of what the production process is like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVNhLKVir8U

 

[Futhark]

Fantastic links people, a big thank you

 

[12dylan34]

I make these types of things for a living. Big VFX studios like ILM have no business doing small things like this, so it's contracted out to smaller motion design houses, by either Apple themselves, or TBWA/Chiat Day. There's a small chance it's done in-house, but probably not.

The software they're using is more than likely Cinema 4D, since that's the standard for motion design, though max is also a possibility. Definitely not Blender, because I don't know of any professional production environment that uses it. More of a free learning tool.

Compositing is done in After Effects or Nuke. I haven't come across any studio that uses Motion yet in my career.