Honda Insight commercial pretends headlights are pixels

Using the headlights of cars as pixels is cute, but it would be far, far cooler if they’d really parked a few hundred cars into the desert. This is surely CG. [via Jalopnik]

1. [TheMadCreator]

   didn’t look like CGI to me…

2. [kaosmonkey]

   The LED sheep weren’t CGI either, were they?

3. [grimc]

   Part real, part CG.

   The result was a fusion of Houdini 3-D modelling software for animation precision, a small number of Insight vehicles for scale and a few hundred Insight headlights. The vehicles and headlights were precisely spaced and wired together while a specially created computer program created the two separate halves of the animations. These animation halves were subsequently married together in post-production.

   Link

4. [mcscruffington]

   Far, far cooler… hmm. Watching it through youtube’s junky pixelated video would you even appreciate the difference? Even if you did, would you be impressed to the point of purchasing the vehicle? No. You’d probably remark about how these companies haven’t learned to curb their excess in such terrible economic times, or perhaps the irony of the environmental waste of transporting 800-1000 ‘green’ (your quotes, not mine) vehicles to this desert for the sake of this advertisement. Besides, what could Honda do with those vehicles, they can’t be sold as new anymore. $20 million marketing write off? Tsk. The lazy invocation of superlatives on the net is pretty off-putting. Not to mention, I’m sure you remember John Hodgman’s post on ‘Meh’? I can’t see how your post is any different in spirit than that. And you’re right Antinous, you don’t even have to say it, if it bugs me then go away, right?

5. [kaosmonkey]

   Thanks Grim, good link

6. [merreborn]

   mcscruffington apparently exists in all timelines simultaneously, rendering him capable of concluding all conversations before they even begin.

7. [Anonymous]

   The advertising campaign was designed for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Russian region.

   http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/honda-let-it-shine-with-insight/