Rezn8 with 3 March Madness spots this year. Nice simple effects that don’t overshadow the emotion of each play. You wouldn’t wan’t to detract from those closeups and Rezn8 does a great job of making the graphics the main character when they have to be.
Here are a few techniques that work great in these spots and I’ve linked to some tutorials that cover similar topics. Not to say this is the way Rezn8 created these spots, but at least you can play around with ONE way to get it done.
3D text in after effects
Ah the million dollar question. Well the oldest way that I know of is duplicating your layer and moving back -1px in Z-space about 40times and then pre-comping the layers. However Zaxwerks makes a very popluar plugin called 3D invigorator that allows you to manipulate simple 3D shapes, extruded splines and text right in After Effects. John Dickinson of Motionworks just posted his 3d invigorator tutorials to get you started. But I like Chad Perkin’s Shatter trick simple and doesn’t require any plugins.
Reflections
Try Video Copilot’s 3D reflection tutorial. Pretty simple tutorial, even adds a little blur to the reflection.
Compositing and tracking
Another Video Copilot tutorial, HUD (or Heads up Display) covers a similar subject. Except in March Madness video you would track the background (perhaps a chair) or any static element in the scene.
