Published on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 by Andrew Nelson
In the business we’re in, we’re no stranger to deadlines. And we certainly understand the consequences of missing them.
So, we were the perfect partner when two hour-long episodes of a documentary series titled Jobsite that will air on The History Channel needed custom 3D-animated segments to help tell their stories of ultra-high-stakes deadlines and the people tasked with meeting them.
The programs, premiering back-to-back the evening of December 30, 2009, each take viewers through a complex, real-life race against time.
In Concrete Countdown, contractors have just 90 minutes to get fresh concrete from a plant in Queens to the 60th floor of a building under construction in midtown Manhattan. And if they don’t? The concrete is worthless, and a whole day is lost. Premieres December 30, 2009, 8 pm CST on The History Channel.
In Deadline Delivery, a patient at a New York City hospital is waiting for a lifesaving radioactive drug. The challenge? The drug is in Shanghai. Follow a team of FedEx delivery experts as they battle long distances, complex regulations, and unexpected weather in a high-stakes race against time. Premieres December 30, 2009, 9 pm CST on The History Channel.
To keep the overall theme of deadline pressure consistent through every part of the process, we had pretty stringent timelines ourselves—little time to plan, design and animate each segment, and the overarching need to cram a whole lot of understanding into only 20 seconds of running time.
It was a challenge, but it was also a lot of fun. And of course we’ve learned yet again how the right people can make the nearly-impossible happen on a daily basis.
Be sure to tune in on the 30th. And if you’re interested in the technical details of how we pulled off our part of the process—in record time, natch—click here for the technical blog.
Need a reminder? Follow us on Twitter, and friend us on Facebook. We’ll give you a heads-up as air-time nears.
Published on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 by Brent Williams
It’s not often you can actually sit down with any of our motion designers for any real amount of time and have a meaningful conversation. But I was able to pry Rafael Aguinaga (or as we call him, “Raffy-Raff”) away from his work just long enough to share with you some insights on the inner-workings of our Concrete Countdown and Deadline Delivery projects that will feature on The History Channel, premiering December 30 at 8 pm and 9 pm respectively.
Our conversation started shortly after I watched the animation for Concrete Countdown and said to Raffy, “Look what you can do in 20 seconds. You built downtown New York!” Raffy laughed and said, “20 seconds? That was more like 20 hours.” Using 3DS Max and After Effects, Raffy created the opening sequence for Concrete Countdown. It basically tracks the flow of concrete from Queens through Manhattan, and up 50 floors of the Setai building.
Raffy recreated the streets of New York true to scale, but he admits he cheated a little bit on the buildings. “Hey, it took more than seven hours to make and model those buildings,” Raffy snapped when I jokingly mocked him for not accurately and perfectly reconstructing every single New York skyscraper. After placing all those buildings, the poly count in the scene grew exponentially, consuming lots of time and resources in the process.
The hardest part, Raffy explained, was nailing down the overall style for the animation. “We went back and forth quite a bit trying to get just the right look. That dark gray texture for the concrete is more difficult to capture than you might think.”
Once the style—including the dotted yellow line tracing the action, the “grunge” look, and the dark gray texture—were finalized, Raffy said he had a much easier time creating the animation for the second show, Deadline Delivery.
Deadline Delivery follows a radioactive drug from Shanghai to New York, by way of Anchorage and Memphis. The beginning of this animated sequence is particularly interesting, passing through four different layers of clouds and five separate Earth layers. Raffy was particularly pleased with the way that portion of the animation turned out. “And it was a real exciting project,” he shared with me. “There’s something special and rewarding about seeing your work on television.”
You can see it too on The History Channel. Tune into Concrete Countdown and Deadline Delivery which both premiere on December 30.
Published on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 by Julianna Arnim
Nothing says Christmas like a ski mask, a secret alarm code, and a sweaty fistful of peppermint candy and commemorative Twilight trading cards. Adcetera takes its annual Secret Santa game seriously, and getting caught means the threat of exposure and almost certainly, blackmail. Maybe when you think of the holidays, you think of figgy pudding or twinkle lights or drunk relatives making passes at your significant other, but here, the True Meaning of Christmas is all wrapped up in this friendly competition to give the cleverest trinkets in the sneakiest ways.
Unlike traditional* Secret Santa games of childhood where you left a wrapped gift under someone’s chair and never revealed yourself as the person who re-gifted that boy doll grandma gave you (seriously, who wants that?), Adcetera’s Secret Santa game raises the stakes.
Names are drawn. Plans are made. Four weeks lie ahead to sneak little gifts and treats onto your recipient’s desk (unless you leave something with a name tag on it in the basement or stairwell, you wimp). Vices are often indulged, and themes established to guide the recipients toward their last gift at the big “reveal,” when final gifts are exchanged face to face.
Yes, we are technically adults, and we all have a lot of real work to do—more so than any other time of year, in fact. So why all the fuss? Why squirrel around hiding trinkets on desks, making night runs to the office and looking for the perfect gift to punctuate your Secret Santa efforts?
Because, from bottles of wine to homemade truffles, vintage comic books to Hollywood-inspired dolls, salvaged toilets to monogrammed dog towels,** the desire to keep the spirit of the season of giving alive is a heartfelt current that flows through all of us.
*lame
**you can’t make this stuff up
Scott sings his reveal that he is the Secret Santa for Kristy!
Published on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 by Matthew Alberty
Join Adcetera and other local, tech-savvy Houstonites for another monthly meetup of Refresh Houston. Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress, will present and follow with an open Q&A at the Westchase Technology Center.
Thanks to our friends at Pop Labs for hosting, providing FOOD and MARGARITAS!
What is Refresh Houston?
Refresh Houston is a community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative, technical and professional culture of new media and Web endeavors in the Houston area. Follow Refresh on FaceBook.
Join Adcetera and other local, tech-savvy Houstonites for another monthly meetup of 
