3D

(2010) - Cisco was exploring an opportunity to create and showcase a custom Telepresence unit on a live ESPN Sportscenter broadcast in the context of interviewing a professional athlete far across the globe.

We were provided a few shots of the studio, but they weren't enough to illustrate the full flow of how we envisioned the script to unfold. Even though I'd had practically zero experience with any 3D programs beforehand, I decided it was the ideal option since it would only require creating the studio once, and then the view could be placed absolutely anywhere we needed.

I went ahead with Google's free Sketchup application, and just spent a few hours going through the tutorial and getting comfortable with the interface. I got the hang of it quickly enough, and then just went about building the ESPN studio from scratch, using the photos as reference. I pulled out images from the photos such as the floor and the SportsCenter backdrop and texture-mapped them onto the relevant 3D panes, and then plopped a couple of the anchors into the scene and I was set.

It's nothing mind-blowing, but I'm pretty happy with the result of my first 3D endeavor.