General / Off-Topic Elite inspires Audi ad?

Archvillain

Archvillain
I just saw a TV commercial that looks like it was inspired by Elite: a view of a solar flare arcing over the nearby surface of a sun, the view pulling back to reveal other suns in tight proximity, all looking very familiar and heavily inspired by nearly identical scenes from Elite (but with the added visual bump-up of pre-rendered graphics). The sort of shots that explorers often post after being nearly cooked by an unexpected multi-binary :)

I was in a sports bar so I didn't see it properly and couldn't hear anything, but it looked like it was part of an Audi (car) commercial. This was in the USA on a sports channel.

I did some youtube trawling but couldn't find it (including in Audi's channel). I'm curious to see it if anyone knows the one.


UPDATE! Found it!

Audi "Little Suns"




In retrospect, I totally believe it was influenced by (and probably inspired by) Elite's depiction of exploring multi-star systems. :)


On a vaguely related note, here's a bonus Audi ad using planets instead of suns to form the logo also featuring hyperspace and perhaps Elite-esque supercruise orbs, though this is more generic spacey and doesn't set off my influences-radar like "Little Suns" does. (The video info just credits an art&design college, so I don't know if this one is a real television commercial.)

 
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tanman

tanman
what if you were hallucinating and were delirious from playing too much ED? jk jk kidding
 
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DragoonKnight

DragoonKnight
tanman said:
what if you were hallucinating and were delirious from playing too much ED? jk jk kidding
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I took a Rorschach test a while ago, just for fun. I am convinced that half of those ink blobs are spaceships. One of them might have been a thargoid, but I am not sure what a thargoid looks like. Does that mean I am crazy?
 
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Ouberos

Ouberos
Hitting the onionhead will do that to you.

I once saw a floating head in witch space. Man I was cooked that night.
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
Monk said:
You sure it was Audi?
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Pretty sure. I've been keeping an eye on the Audi USA youtube channel waiting for any new videos to be added but nothing there has changed for a week now. And what's on their channel is just a drop in the bucket of Audi advertisement production, once you start casting a wider net than Youtube. I didn't realize they produced so much.

Something I'm not sure about (because I looked away); the viewpoint ended up with the suns all lined up horizontally, identical in size, and I think they became the Audi logo (the row of four linked rings).
(Then there were some shots of some car or something :) )

It's possible (but seems very unlikely) that the suns were one ad and the audi ad was a subsequent unrelated ad, but I think I saw part of the transition to the logo, and from watching a ton of audi ads, they don't seem to open with the logo. (They also often create the logo out of a red lens flare, and I suspect they were riffing on that with the suns because I remember that the suns were a redder / deeper orange than the usual (M-class) stars in Elite)

I was just back at the same place (a week later). I didn't see the ad again but if the same TV is still on the same channel as last week, then the network was ESPNEWS.
 
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jmp470

J
Darn it... Now I miss my A8..... GREAT CAR... get one if you can.... On the road it handles like a viper :D .... in the parking lot it handles like a T-9 :eek:
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
FOUND IT! FINALLY!!! Damnit I've been searching for this thing so long, it finally appeared online!

https://vimeo.com/166090779

(It looks like it's actually been online for a month but Vimeo's search function didn't bring up it until today, even though I was using the same search words today as last time)

Watching it again, I believe this indeed was influenced by (and probably inspired by) Elite's graphics.
smile.png
 
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glynie

glynie
I doubt very much it has anything to do with Elite. Many people have been creating depictions of stars and the cosmos for a very long time.
 

Archvillain

Archvillain
glynie said:
I doubt very much it has anything to do with Elite. Many people have been creating depictions of stars and the cosmos for a very long time.
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I really can't agree. Elite's depiction (of flying through the corona of dimmed sun clusters in such tight proximity) was something that did not exist before Elite. It took the existing NASA and other depictions and mixed them in with its own special sauce, creating what at the time a strikingly distinctive and innovative view of star systems that has since then influenced how a lot of unrelated people depict star systems.

The ad uses together a bunch of elements that no-one brought together before Elite. That's almost never coincidence. Elite is not some obscure artist's print in a small-town gallery, it is mass media that is routinely covered by even mass-er media, and taking inspiration from things is how we create things. Ads and productions are not invented from whole cloth or designed in a cultural whiteroom, it's entirely the opposite.
Yes, they will have looked at a lot of NASA imagery too (as did FDev), but moving through flare arcs of tight multi-binary star systems like that didn't come from nowhere.

I have experience with both ends of this (creating mass-media influenced by the works of others, and others being influenced by my work), and I'm confident that people involved in that production have seen graphics from Elite :)
 
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Arry

Arry
Brett C said:
What region of the world did you see this advert at by chance?
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You mean a massive graphics department, doesn't make ads? Have to say, that some of that ad, does look 'borrowed'?

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jmp470 said:
Darn it... Now I miss my A8..... GREAT CAR... get one if you can.... On the road it handles like a viper :D .... in the parking lot it handles like a T-9 :eek:
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Is that a Dodge Viper?
 

glynie

glynie
Archvillain said:
I really can't agree. Elite's depiction (of flying through the corona of dimmed suns in such extreme proximity to each other) was something that simply did not exist before Elite. It took the existing NASA and other depictions and mixed them in with its own special sauce, creating what I think was a strikingly distinctive and innovative view of star systems.

The ad uses together a bunch of elements that no-one brought together before Elite. That's almost never coincidence. Elite is not some obscure artist's print in a small-town gallery, it is mass media that is routinely covered by even mass-er media, and taking inspiration from things is how we create things. Ads and productions are not invented from whole cloth or designed in a cultural whiteroom, it's entirely the opposite.
Yes, they will have looked at a lot of NASA imagery too (as did FDev), but moving through flare arcs of tight multi-binary star systems like that didn't come from nowhere.

I have experience with both ends of this (creating mass-media influenced by the works of others, and others being influenced by my work), and I'm confident that people involved in that production have seen graphics from Elite :)
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I disagree, I'm sorry. I think it's just a coincidence.

Maybe someone should just email them and ask them.
 
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Archvillain

Archvillain
glynie said:
Maybe someone should just email them and ask them.
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Maybe, but that kind of question is often associated with things like the public talking about the messenger instead of the message, misunderstandings, social-media headaches, even frivolous lawsuits, etc.
I know in my line we avoid PR wildcards because of the risk of random minefields. (We also have specialists to handle public interface, whereas this question is for people at the coalface.)

I wouldn't put much weight on any reply, I have much more confidence in my experience and track record.
 
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