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By Gillian West, Social media manager

October 9, 2014 | 2 min read

The Department for Transport (DFT) has worked with AMV ScanLab and The Mill to use Lidar technology in its latest ad ‘Transparent’.

The 40 second spot plays on the idea that if a driver could see the danger ahead through a bend, they would slow down.

Of the technical process, lead 3D artist, Tom Raynor explained: “This project provided a unique set of challenges. Lidar is traditionally only able to capture a snapshot of a point in time, but through the use of animation we were able to see this technique brought to life. We rigged a number of vehicles so that they were able to be animated using realistic car dynamics, which added realism and drama to the piece.

“The scanning process produces a point cloud file containing the millions of points in 3D space. For each scan we were also provided with a high dynamic range panoramic photograph taken from the same position as the scan. We went through the laborious process of aligning and mapping the colour images to the scan data for each scan and painting out any uwanted artifacts before animating.”

Producer Jarrad Vladich added that the co-directors, Steve Jones, Martin Loraine and Giles Revell, were “instrumental in visualising this piece from what was very conceptual beginning”.

Traditionally used in geology, forestry and contour mapping, Lidar technology was used to take scans of the countryside location with The Mill creating a 3D point cloud environment to give the viewer a unique perspective and to literally see through the bend in the road.

AMV BBDO The Mill Department For Transport

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