Greyscalegorilla

Menu
Greyscalegorilla.com

How to Make the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice Cube Event Bumpers Part 1 77 Comments

In this tutorial, I show you how to make the ice cube bumpers that have been popular on the NBC’s presentation of the olympics. I show you how to build an ice cube using material displacement, refraction, transparency, reflection, and specular highlights. I also cut out a photo of a snowboarder to add to the ice cube logo. Then, we animate the rotation of the ice cube and prepare it for After Effects where we will add the rest of the elements for the final piece.


Reference Olympics video of what we are making (US Only… Sorry)

Photo By Darkmatter

Part 2 Coming Soon…

77 comments Join the Conversation Join the Discussion
Transform
HDRI Studio Pack

77 Comments

  2. MarcyVF

    It’s good to hear your voice again Nick! I’ve been watching loads of tutorials lately, and all the hosts are stiff, nerdy robots. But you stay human! Or gorilla, whatever works.

    Keep on being awesome!

    (And this was helpful by the way. Jake was cool too.)

    Reply

  5. Fard Muhammad

    Nick, If you’ve read any of my FB posts (and I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t), you’d know that I am a huge fan of the work of David Barton, the MG Artist who did these bumper pieces for not only the Vancouver Games, but also Beijing in 2008 and Torino in 2006. So this tutorial is right up my alley. :)

    For fellow Gorilla fans who want to see MG reels from previous Games and other NBC projects, check out http://www.davidbartondesign.com

    Reply

    • Coolzilj

      thanks for the link,
      awesome work,i’m gonna be a huge fan of DB.

      Reply

  6. Gazfx

    Once again some new things learnt.

    Sound difference was massive. All gravy though.

    Cheers fella

    Reply

  7. Rounin

    Cool! This I can apply this on other 3D programs. I like how you used the luminance of the texture to get reflection (great for product lighting/reflections). Oh man, does it mean we have have to wait til after the weekend to see part 2?

    I’m really loving these two parter full project tutorials using both C4D and AE. Awesome job.

    R|

    Reply

  9. DaniSang

    Awesome tutorial :)

    However I got a question/suggestion. What if you boole out the bubbles from the cube? Wouldn’t you get the same effect? maybe even more realistic? I’m not a science guru, but aren’t those bubbles trapped air? XD – I’m definatly going to try it out myself. Maybe ill post here my outcome.

    But ones again, awesome tutorial.

    Reply

    • Mars Sanford

      You’re thinking about it realistically, but not in terms of a 3D package.

      There’s nothing in the middle of the cube… it’s all surface. Everything in 3D is hollow polygons.

      Therefore, the spheres aren’t even really boole’ing with anything :)

      Reply

    • Ben Carroll

      I think your problem is, C4D is using the texture from the spheres on those surfaces, so give them the same texture as the one on the ice and voila!

      Reply

  10. Shahrez Rafiq

    LUCK…
    For maybe a month I will not be able to do serious work because my lovely demon (yup, my PC)died a smokey death just a couple of hours ago.
    Wish me luck because I’ll have to work hard to get the money to buy a new one.

    Reply

  11. Goran

    I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to make these tutorials. Without people like you, the world would stop turning…

    Thank´s!

    Reply

  12. Fede

    hey great tutorial nick! i wanted to see the render though XD.

    i wanted to ask you sth, if that’s okay with you haha, could you do a little vRay tutorial for Cinema 4D?? it’s a great plugin and i can’t find any good tut online.

    Reply

  15. Brixen

    Hi mighty Gorilla ^^

    i just wanna say those vid tuts are the best i´ve ever seen. You are a funny dude, dude ^^

    i´m looking forward to the sexy IceCubeManAfterEffectsVidTut, and maybe we see the dog again :D

    greets from germany

    Reply

  16. Ryan

    Hey Nick,

    It’s almost like you read my mind on this one. I was experimenting with it myself and it’s great to see another take on it. How long are you in Denver? You making any appearances around town while you’re out here?

    Thanks for all your great insight to the world of motion graphics!

    -Ryan

    Reply

  17. Peter

    The best way to cut out that image in Photoshop would be by using the most contrasted channel, duplicating that, then applying Levels, then painting out any problematic areas that might be left (the Dodge and Burn tool work like magic in the edge areas), and you have your mask in less than the time it takes you to go around with the Magnetic Lasso. Instead of using a single channel, the Select > Color Range function may even give better results (it’s basically a Linear Keyer). But these two ways are going to give you a near-perfect matte in no time.

    Reply

    • umcosta

      i think u should quick mask your brain and gradient fill it.

      Reply

  19. jason

    I love seeing real world examples like this. It’s this kind of work that brings me back again and again!

    Reply

  22. Frankay

    Hey Nick, thank you very much for your efforts and work you put in there. Your tuts are the most high-quality stuff I found on the net and , lucky for me, entertaining… Keep on the incredible stuff you do and again thanks!

    P.S.: one little tip…you linked the photo you used with “BlackMotion”…it’s “Blackmatter”, just to keep you out of license trouble ;-)

    Reply

  23. Sebastian

    Hi Nick. Will watch this tutorial soon. Probably beautiful as always. The reference video is for US viewers only by the way.

    Thanks for all.

    Sebastian

    Reply

  24. Tom

    Awsome tutorial nick! I have watched all your tutorials today. And i have learned a lot :) Thank you so much.

    Reply

  26. Roderick

    Great stuff Nick…really cool to see how “easy” it is to create an ice cube with distortion. You aren’t visiting Effective UI in Denver aswell by any chance are you :) ?
    Once again…. great stuff!!

    Reply

    • Tiffer

      In Render Settings and Anti-Aliasing try puting it to(best)mybe.
      See if that helps…..

      Reply

    • Raoul

      It seem to be just an illusion (hou hou hou hou aah) when the picture viewer apply the alpha. It’s ok in AE. Strange.
      Anyway thanks for the help.

      Reply

    • Gazfx

      “Just and Illusion (hou hou hou hou aah) made me laugh.

      80′s music FTW!!!

      Reply

  28. Tiffer

    In Render Settings and Anti-Aliasing try puting it to(best)mybe.
    See if that helps…..

    Reply

  29. Hoextra

    Great Tutorial! Again!
    Can’t wait for part two!
    Thanks a lot!

    Reply

  30. James Wicks

    Great tut, Nick.
    But not as gorilla as I was expecting.
    Next time, try recording it on your laptop in a bobsled with Jake at the controls.
    Now, THAT would be gorilla!
    ;)

    best,
    J

    Reply

  31. Wesley

    Hey man, your idea of take comercial videos and recreate effects in Cinema 4D is great, we can learn a lot in a project that looks like a pro. Thanks!

    Reply

  34. council

    Great tut Nick. I love your work and I thank you for how much you’ve helped me develop my C4D & AE skills. Keep it up.

    Reply

  35. Hicham

    Nick,
    Great tutorial. Just a small favor if you would. Can you make the C4D file available to download, I only have after effects and would real love to do something like this. Thanks

    Reply

  37. Phil

    I have NEVER used cinema 4d before but I will now!!!

    Assume outcome! Excellent teacher!!

    Reply

  38. James Brelaz

    Could someone from US to download the video and post into another video server? for international viewers, thanx!

    Reply

    • Thomas

      You can see the video in the tutorial. For more go to http://www.davidbartondesign.com.
      Great tutorial as ever! Can’t wait for part 2.
      @gorilla How about integrating a function for your viewers to link their own great works?

      Reply

    • James Brelaz

      Very usefull feedback from the tutorial, keep going, I’m gonna do my own too.

      Reply

  41. Davy Menge

    The strange white line is because C4D can’t render alpha and DOF through transparency. In your rotate animation your plane intersects with the reflect planes so in your render you’ll have soms stripes in the corner.

    Great stuff nonetheless I love your videos, very inspiring!

    Reply

  42. alien

    Hey Nick

    first of all, thank you for the tuto, it’s great! And besides what Peter said up there about cutting photo in PS, in your case of this tuto, you can increase the frequence of the Magnetic Lasso and that will automatically add more points to the edge of your photo, and it will becomes more accurate on going around the subject in the photo.

    cheers

    Reply

  44. Mediengestalt

    Happy Birthday, greyscalegorilla blog! 2 years ago you poted first, congrats and thx for all the efforts!

    Reply

  47. Yoshi

    Nice tutorial again , Nick! :D

    I hope to see part 2 as soon as possible ;)

    Y.

    Reply

  48. MikeC

    Is there any reason (pros/cons) to render the 3d animations in a tiff/psd sequence rather than a quicktime or avi?
    Just wondering. I just like to keep things simple so I usually render just a .mov file.

    Reply

  50. Ramzes

    Nick hi! I need your help! Please tell me, what can be the problem.. I am trying to render my project from AE, and when it starts to render, it’s skips and render doesn’t go through, I mean it is not rendering, what can be the problem? it shows like 7958 render time it means I guess, but it’s not rendering properly,why?

    Reply

  51. Phantomthecrow

    Hi, Master Gorilla….awesome tutorials ur site it’s one of my top 5 bookmarked already…cheers from Peru…sorry for my english… keep them coming..

    Reply

  54. Trayan

    I don’t have in the displacement meniu the sub-polygon displacement meniu. How can i activate it?

    Reply

  57. Erwin

    What’s up to every single one, it’s truly a fastidious for me to pay a visit this web page, it consists of valuable Information.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Comment Rules

I love helpful comments. We don't all have to be friends or agree, but we do have to be nice. Criticism is fine, but rude comments will be deleted. Use your real name and don't be spammy. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation!