We created photo-real 3D light tubes, which created a balancing act in figuring out how much reflection detail we wanted as well as the depth of field effect. So we customized reality a bit and altered both, optimizing readability without losing realism or production quality.

These layouts were going to be largely procedural to help the team generate original looking assets. Therefore, we created a system that was balanced wherever we put our camera and typography. “Spectacle” and “Event” were the predominant themes carried through with the American Idol Branding redux. So a procedural choreography was developed for the strobing light tube system. This not only stylistically emphasized our themes but was integral to creating unique deliverables across the board. In the end, the system we developed gave us that seeming randomness between assets while keeping some commonalities across the family.

As the typography is fully customizable by the in-house ABC team, all effects, and rules needed to apply regardless of what they typeset in each card. As a result, there were some hurdles and compositing backflips performed in figuring out the process for the reflections of the strobing lights.