nailgun* Captures the Look of HGTV's Dream Home

Feb. 27, 2007 - PRLog -- Award-Winning Creative Studio Designs Show Open/Packaging and Logo for HGTV's Highest Rated TV Event Airing Jan. 1

NEW YORK, NY - Every year since 1997, Home & Garden Television (HGTV) has built a beautiful, fully-furnished home for the sole purpose of giving it away to one lucky viewer on HGTV's Dream Home (http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dream_home/), the network's highest rated television event, which airs on New Year's Day. To create the show open/packaging for this important, one-time-only show, the network turned to the award-winning creative design studio nailgun* (www.nailgun.tv), who also collaborated recently with the network on the show open/packaging of the popular show, Gardening By The Yard.

"This is our second project for HGTV and we feel like we understand the brand very well," said Michael Waldron, nailgun*'s Creative Director. "In the past HGTV incorporated a lot of their own branding and identity into every individual show package. Our message to them has been that each show should have its own distinct look. Dream Home shouldn't look like Gardening By The Yard. It's about creating a brand within the brand. There are a lot of home improvement networks and shows out there so it is essential that Dream Home standout as part of HGTV."

The nailgun* created Dream Home open and packaging certainly stands out thanks to the smart concept and amazing photo-real 3D animation that propels the :15 show open. Beginning with a picturesque shot of Colorado's Rocky Mountains (site of this year's Dream Home) at dawn, the camera quickly flies over the terrain as a 3D animated snowboarder jumps on the screen. The camera quickly pulls back and flies through an array of 3D fir trees. As we come out of the foliage, we see an elaborate A frame styled home being built seemingly out of ice. As the camera continues to pull back it's revealed that it's not a house that's being built but rather the 'A' in the word 'Dream' - part of the show's logo.

"We initially wanted to come out of the trees and into a shot of a 3D home being built, but because the show starts with a cold open with shots of the actual home, it seemed a bit redundant so we had to rethink it," explained Waldron. "From there we came up with the idea of instead of the house, the show's logo is what's being constructed."

In addition to designing the show open/packaging, nailgun* also created the show's logo that will be used not only on broadcast, but also in print and online.

For nailgun*'s creative team the project offered the design studio to further explore the art of photo-real 3D animation - a demanding skill-set the company also explored with their recent 4-spot cinema campaign for Mercury via agency Y&R, Detroit.

"More and more our clients are asking for photo-real 3D and because of that we've gotten increasingly more sophisticated at creating that type of imagery and its opened us up creatively to a whole other way of thinking," said Erik van der Wilden, nailgun*s Director of Editorial and Animation. "Probably the most challenging sequence was with the snow boarder. 3D Animators Roger Hom and Santiago Castaño built that sequence completely. If you watch closely, you'll see there's an enormous amount of detail - not just the lighting and shadows but also on the snowboarder itself. We watched snowboarding videos to make sure we had it dead on in terms of the details on the board itself and the physical mechanics of the movement."

For nailgun* designer Lisa Eunhae Kim, it was crucial they visually create a balance between the cold, snow-covered terrain and the feeling warmth and comfort the idea of a home inspires.

"It was essential that we get across that feeling of home," said Kim. "HGTV wanted the open to feel warm and inviting, which we did through the use of color and lighting. Because 3D can sometime lack emotion we also paid close attention to the details and made sure that we were hitting all the right notes emotionally."