ripe: Blurring Boundaries
In order to gain agreement on the initial designs for the stand, ripe felt it was important to show as many different angles and viewpoints as possible, generated in 3D Studio Max. Shillito explains: “This is where multi-cored Macs come into their own by allowing us to produce more renders in the time available, which not only aids the client’s ability to make decisions, but also maintains their confidence at every stage of the process”.
While the stand design was at the approval stage, the ripe team were crafting the looped animated film in Final Cut Pro and After Effects, making sure it was ready in time to be displayed on the stand. The film was subsequently exported in QuickTime format for the accompanying website.
ripe’s creative for Adidas’ adiPRENE campaign.
Once the stand design was approved, ripe got to work on the signage. Shillito says: “It was back to Bridge again to farm the approved assets and export them into Photoshop and Illustrator and then into InDesign in order to produce the necessary print materials, including leaflets and promotional collateral. Ultimately, the Mac’s hardware and software integration helped us deliver excellent work across all media on time and on budget, resulting in a very happy client”.
The Mac proved integral to this creative process; as Shillito says: “All designers want to work on a Mac, it just makes sense and doesn’t limit your creativity or your control over the software. The hardware works beautifully with the software too — it’s a much more seamless experience”.
The company now boasts a sophisticated set-up that includes a central design studio with five Mac Pros and two Power Mac G5s (soon to be replaced with 8-core Mac Pros). “We also have three iMacs and three MacBook Pros”, says Shillito, “plus two quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pros and one 8-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro”.
The Mac Pros run a range of 2D programs such as Quark, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Boot Camp to support its two 3D Studio Max seats. The team also make full use of Final Cut Studio and After Effects.
“Lots of our work moves and QuickTime is generally taken for granted”, says Shillito. “Without it, it would be a nightmare to create and repurpose digital content, video and animation. QuickTime also integrates seamlessly with all our favourite tools — Final Cut Pro, 3D Studio Max, After Effects and Keynote. It’s very adaptable, allowing content to be repurposed for delivery on various platforms, whether its DVD, the web or in Keynote presentations”.
“I’ve worked with QuickTime since its introduction, when we only had postage stamp-sized animations, through to today, where we can work in HD on a Mac Pro without the need for expensive additional hardware”.
Shillito is equally passionate about Mac OS X: “Some of the new features in Leopard are really nice”, he says. “The file viewing tool, Quick Look, is particularly useful, and the built-in search technology, Spotlight, has proved a great help”.
“My challenge at ripe”, concludes Murray, “is to continue to stimulate creativity. Having a broad range of clients, across different countries and cultures, in different disciplines, helps us build a broad creative base. And Apple is part of that — its technology inspires our designers. With Apple, we never have to say to our clients, ‘that’s beyond our scope’ — we always know we can push things a bit further”.
