Sixteen years ago, when I was the Motion Design Director and Partner at Outpost Pictures a little gem of a project crossed our desk. Like so many of my generation Indiana Jones was our ultimate hero. This seemed like just the right opportunity to pretend for a few weeks to build a Jonesy-type world for one of our favorite clients, Southern Living at Home, a division of Southern Progress.

We pitched the concept for their annual meeting to Gary Wright, SLAH’s fearless Marketing leader, at Southern Living at Home. He leaped at the opportunity to don the fedora and crack the whip! In order to showcase Gary as the world traveler he was we built multiple locations from the Pyramids of Egypt to somewhere lost in the Himalayas, and eventually going over the falls in the heart of the Amazon jungle.

This project was such a treat! We used nearly every technique available at the time including leaf blowers, CG mosquitoes, and even reconstructing the waterfalls scene by building a 3D comp out of one large photo. We didn’t use salt for the falls. We incorporated particle sims from one of my preset packs I built for Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular earlier that year. It really brought the falls to life. Gary brought his inner Indy to the stage, never breaking character while fleeing from the natives!

Extensive environment work placed Gary right in the middle of the action-packed scenes. Particle sims via Trapcode Particular and animated fractal textures were employed for sandstorms, wind gusts, dust, snow, water droplets, and Gary’s frosty breath. For the waterfalls reveal I stitched together 3D cards set up to face the camera. Trapcode Particular was also used for the waterfalls, mosquitoes, and birds.

Let’s take a heroic dive into building out the Indiana Jones-inspired alternate reality for Southern Living At Home’s Gary Wright and the Trek for the Ultimate Trip! This project proved to be both well received and such a pleasure to plan, design, and create.