Jeremy Cox, Imaginary Forces Art Director, to Appear at MAXON NAB 2015 Exhibitor Booth to Showcase Cinema 4D Creative Workflow on WGN America’s Historical Drama

Friedrichsdorf, Germany – March 30, 2015 – MAXON extends heartiest congratulations to Imaginary Forces, a preeminent creative studio and production company, on winning the 2015 SXSW “Excellence in Title Design Award” for the WGN America network’s “Manhattan” TV series.

Manhattan explores “…the mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, N.M., and centers on the brilliant but flawed scientists and their families as they attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.” (Source WGN America) 

Imaginary Forces, a long time MAXON customer, relied on a number of key features and tools in Cinema 4D throughout the “Manhattan” title design process to achieve the overall illustrated diagrammatic design esthetic. 

Jeremy Cox, Imaginary Forces Art Director, explains that early on in the title animation process the creative team assumed they would be working entirely in 2D and keep everything completely flat in an endless, abstract paper world. “After experimenting with how the sequence would animate, we created a test using Cinema 4D where we were able to not only 3D animate the diagrams on the paper, but also successfully model and animate the various papers sliding around. 

“Using Cineware to import cameras and animated nulls into our After Effects comps gave us the ability to easily update the content of these pages as the animation evolved and also allowed us to replace the content on the pieces of paper without re-rendering the 3D elements,” he added. 

The “Sketch and Toon” toolset in Cinema 4D also proved beneficial in allowing the team to render elements with very natural looking line work. “All of the buildings in the sequence are 3D models that were rendered using Sketch and Toon to look as if they were drafted in pencil.” 

“‘Manhattan’ winning the SXSW award for ‘Excellence in Title Design’ is a huge honor,” adds Cox. “This has been an amazing year for title design, and I was blown away by all the amazing finalists we were up against. Having access to reliable tools in our production pipeline streamlined our workflow and was important in bringing the sequence to life.” 

The “Excellence in Title Design Awards,” a part of the SXSW Film Design Awards, pays tribute to the film title design aspect of the filmmaking “…ecosystem that often slips below the radar.” The “Manhattan” title sequence beat out 22 other competitors from both the film, television and game world to include, “22 Jump Street”, “American Horror Story 4: Freakshow”, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Godzilla”, “Silicon Valley”, “Alien: Isolation”, and others. 

At the upcoming NAB Show (April 13 – 16, 2015), Cox will be presenting at the MAXON exhibitor booth (SL 10405) to show the studio’s creative approaches and production techniques on the "Manhattan" title design sequence. For additional information, please visit www.C4DLive.com. 

“Manhattan” Title Design Credits
Designed & Produced by: Imaginary Forces
IF Creative Director: Dan Gregoras
IF Art Director: Jeremy Cox
IF Executive Producer: Gabriel Marquez
IF Producer: Jon Hassell
IF Designer: Griffin Frazen
IF Animator: Sekani Solomon
IF Cel Animator: Peter Ahern
IF Editor: Karl Amdal
IF Additional Design: Audrey Davis, Tim Haldeen 

To learn more about the Imaginary Forces Cinema 4D workflow on the “Manhattan” title sequence project, please visit: 
•    http://www.maxon.net/en/news/singleview-default/article/imaginary-forces-took-home-the-prize-for-excellence-in-title-design-at-sxsw-2015-for-manhattan.html 
•    http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/CGSFeatures/CGSFeatureSpecial/manhattan