Diver

A rich media, self-promotion piece for Lopez Negrete Communications coded in Actionscript 3. This banner ran across the U.S. and many Latin American countries. The expected animation impact was to create a visual experience for the user that crafted emotions of exploration and market knowledge superiority as can be depicted by a lone diver plunging into the dark depths of the ocean.

Of the more interesting features of this piece is the use of a displacement map on the static image of the water in the background to create the visual effect of light becoming warped by the movement of the ocean wave. This effect is further compounded by the use of radial animation on layers of rays of light that blend into the background image of the ocean. Even more, a particle system was employed to handle the representation of the ocean currents by the way of dust-like particles moving from the left of the scene to the right.

Also, the displacement map system has the ability to react to the user’s mouse movements, however, this was turn off for this execution as this particular functionality would produce an effect more suitable for the surface of the water rather than in the depths below. For that reason, a second particle system was created that generated bubbles from the mouse cursor as the user moved their mouse. The particles were randomly set to differing sizes to create realistic animation effect. This system was also used for the air exhaust on the diver’s equipment.

Award:

  • 2012 AAF Houston Addy – Digital Self-Promotion – Citation of Excellence