From Thorns to Roses. A closer look at how the Portland
@trailblazers “Roses” open was created.
The piece started with a simple idea: resilience. It follows the players through a dark world of overgrown thorny vines shaped by struggle and adversity. As it unfolds, roses begin to bloom across the environment, bringing both the world and the team to life.
The workflow brought together Houdini, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and After Effects across procedural rose systems, environment buildout, animation, lighting, rendering, player-driven effects, and final compositing.
Creating this for display inside Moda Center as its new LED system came online made it even more exciting. Really satisfying to see it all play out at that scale, and grateful to everyone who helped make it happen.
Credits:
Creative Development and Story Support: Billie Olson, Tristan Brillanceau-Lewis, Koji Matsumoto, Neil Hilken, Devin Gustafson
3D Design, Animation, Lighting, Rendering, Compositing, and Editing: Neil Hilken
Procedural Rose and Vine Development: Andy Camou
Editorial and Footage Support: Dane Sawyer
Player Green Screen Direction: Jacob Strain
Player Green Screen Videography: Devin Boss
2D Player FX, Footage Treatment, & Compositing: David Sawchak
Supplemental Arena Motion Design & Animation Elements: Corey Strandberg, Matthew Kreizenbeck, Greg Madrigal, Wyatt Germer, Media Grabbers, David Mellor, Dashiell Robb
#PortlandTrailBlazers #NBA #BehindTheScenes #SportsGraphics #3DAnimation
