Los Angeles-based, Emmy-nominated content creation studio MindOverEye, which has experience working in the automotive sector with top-tier brands including Chrysler, Chevy, Dodge, Ford, Fiat, Jaguar, and Volvo, has served as the creative partner for an elaborate, eye-catching installation in Los Angeles’s newly remodeled Petersen Automotive Museum
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MindOverEye was tasked with weaving a visual narrative on the three floors of the Petersen, which are respectively tethered to the themes of “Artistry of the Automobile,” “Thrill of Motorsports,” and “Road to Stardom.” MindOverEye produced the content utilizing design, CG/animation, creative editorial, projection mapping, and live action to highlight the aesthetic beauty of automobiles and its impact in the world of motorsports and its influence on Hollywood.
“Artistry of the Automobile” is large-scale abstract experiential video installation displayed on an uninterrupted arced wall that measures 16 feet high and 166 feet wide. Located on the main floor of the Mullin Gallery, this piece contemplates the spark of inspiration as related to automotive design. In order to interpret the aesthetic character of cars as art, MindOverEye used Maxon Cinema 4D to create shapes reminiscent of the museum’s exterior architecture as well as the animated natural and automotive forms. The watercolor-styled concept art began as separately hand-painted style frames before they were animated together in C4D using watercolor bleeding effect.
“Thrill of Motorsports” is an extensive, immersive video set piece, located on the 2nd floor in the Charles Nearburg Family Gallery, displayed on a 180-degree arced wall that measures seven feet high and 134 feet wide. This piece transports us to a day in the life of auto racing across multiple forms utilizing archival footage as well as live action shot by MindOverEye’s team.
For the live-action portion, MindOverEye designed a custom nine-piece, 180-degree camera rig in 3D in order to optimize its size and efficiency. While modeling it, they tested and determined ideal field of view, spacing between cameras, lenses required, optimal distance from the subject, amount of overlap between cameras, and proper stitching workflow. Finally, MindOverEye fabricated the design in anodized billet aluminum and outfitted it with nine GoPro Hero4s and Fujinon 8mm C-mount lenses. The result was beautifully calibrated footage captured at 180 degrees with the least possible camera overlap and maximum possible horizontal resolution.
On the third floor in the Hollywood Gallery, “Road to Stardom” tips its hat to Hollywood, celebrating the automotive industry’s unique contribution to the film and TV industries, with iconography of famous roadsters ranging from Herbie the Love Bug to the Munsters Mobile as well as the original Batmobile.
The challenge with “Thrill of Motorsports” and “Road to Stardom” was how to present footage of different resolutions in such a large format. MindOverEye had to accumulate library, archival footage and thread those into the larger, wider scope of video, creatively sliding footage in and out to match resolution.
Toolkit:
Adobe: Photoshop, AfterEffects, Premiere
Autodesk: Maya
The Foundry: Nuke
Maxon: C4D
Avid: ProTools
Kolor AutoPanoVideo Pro ind Kolor AutoPano Giga