Switched names becomes possible with motion tracking (and patience)

The Crowley Company in Frederick, MD offers archival equipment and services, making it possible to get those boxes of slides or cabinets overstuffed with files digitized and searchable with ease.  We have worked with them in the past, creating product demos for their different branches.  Using some live action footage, kinetic typography and the Crowley product demonstrators (the fabulous arm models in the videos), we helped The Crowley Company save time and resources to efficiently share their user knowledge with their global target audience.

Almost one year later, The Crowley Company has recently gone through some product rebranding and knew they needed to update their video to reflect the new product name and colors.  The challenges:

• The finished, revised video needed to be ready to go in one week.
• The physical rebranding of the scanners was still in progress, so they had no equipment with the new branded labels on it.
• There was no opportunity to reshoot the product demo.

Fortunately, a reshoot wasn’t needed. Armed with the magic of motion graphics and compositing, we digitally rebranded their red color ImageLink equipment with their green color-schemed MACH7380 graphics. Colors changed, icons changed, screensavers seen around the edges had to be masked or replaced.

“Disarming” a moving target

The trickiest scene is about 34 seconds in, where the arm of a user reaches across to make a selection on the screen. This partially covers three different places where the video needed the new brand – all while moving. Several masks and motion tracking techniques were used to “hide” the old and cover it with the new.

Now, The Crowley Company has their newly revamped and rebranded video live online and shares it regularly to potential customers through their online outlets.  The video shares the same message, but with a fresh facelift.  Thanks to the well-organized graphics and branding vision from the client, and the quick feedback, it was a video partnership that resulted in a successful and quick turnaround.

The next time you are faced with the need to replace visual elements, explore the possibility of a digital renovation. With professional motion graphics, you may have more options than you think.