"Calming" is rarely a term used to describe the effects of watching MTV. But that was the mood that the network wanted motion graphics company Sägas, Buenos Aires to establish with six new branding spots for the Latin American market.

The "I Am Cloud" package takes MTV viewers back to the halcyon days of youth - or at least that part of their youth that didn't consist of time spent glued to various screens - when Sunday afternoons were spent lazing on the grass and watching clouds as they formed imaginary shapes.

"We wanted something relaxed but also abstract, happy and playful," says Ronaldo Ramirez, design director at MTV Latin America. "Something that would evoke calmness through empty spaces. After some back and forth [with Sägas] we got to the idea of recreating this childhood fantasy of watching animal shapes in the sky."

The spots, which feature a parade of polygon-comprised animals floating amidst clouds to an ambient score, is a marked departure from the hyperactive, visual overload usually associated with the MTV brand.

According to Sägas directors Fernando Sarmiento and Tomás Garcia, however, the evocative piece fits in perfectly with the brand's identity.

"MTV tries to connect constantly with an ever-changing audience," says Sarmiento. "With an adolescent audience which is radically changing, this is one of those breaks - [a switch] from one sensation to the other."

Visually, Sägas took its cue from the short-form piece "Sometimes", by Paris-based digital artists Pleix, which features an exploded skyscraper's shards moving hypnotically through a city.

Although the spots are steeped in child-like fantasy, Sägas achieved a realistic feel with a live-action sky backdrop shot with a Canon XL1 and then painted over in Photoshop. Camera-tracking software was then used to give the piece a hand-held feel. The six different animal types, one for each spot, were created using 3D Studio Max with a particle system applied to give their polygon parts a realistic, ragged look, then composited in Autodesk Combustion.

The score was composed by sound designer David Kamp after the original track "Come March" by Japanese visual artist/musician Takagi Masakatsu was nixed due to copyright issues. "Come March," however, with its recording of children's voices at play over a frolicking xylophone was Ramirez' initial inspiration for the wonderment pervading the piece.

"Somehow, it's about breaking through to be what you actually want to be," says Sarmiento about the spots' overall message. "To be at peace with the world around you and, most importantly, your inner self."

Sägas http://www.ohsagas.com
MTV Latin America http://www.mtvla.com