The KOYU spot Rama and I did together was focused on the design of the keyboard, so I wanted the M60 spot to be about variety. I felt inspired by the incredible amount of creativity and expression mechanical keyboard hobbyists have. The concept was to create a collage of desk spaces inspired by photos of existing Rama Works products posted by the community. The M60 frame would serve as the constant in a revolving door of personalized work spaces.

EARLY PRODUCT RENDER

I took the base concept of the keyboard on a desk and started designing dreamlike desk spaces that accentuated the finish of each keyboard. In the first scene where you see the text from the terminal window, I lit the scene as if there's an entire monitor. I even bent the text as if it's being displayed on a curved CRT.

Rama Works M60-A finish lineup

Many hobbyists create their own firmware in a text editor. For authenticity I created a keymap of my own and built a hex file in terminal. I recorded the process and recreated it in After Effects. In the video someone types the make command into the terminal window and hits enter. As the code begins to compile, the force from the last keystroke starts the 'revolving' effect that carries us through the rest of the spot.

Building M60-A firmware inside terminal

I worked with the sonic branding team at Another Country Detroit for the audio on this project. They created a rich binaural environment, perfect for experiencing with headphones. This technique allows for perceived motion above, below, and behind the head. It took me several views to catch all the hidden details in the track.

M60-A KEYSET PROCEDURAL REDSHIFT MATERIAL

The keycap material I created uses shader switches and object ID to control how each keycap gets it's color. This made it easy to try out a lot of color combinations. I have three different groups in the object manager; alphas, modifiers, and accents. The individual keys can be dropped into whichever group and will receive the material colors associated with that group.
Visuals: Todd Hersey
Audio Post Production: Another Country Detroit
Producer: James Henry
Composer: Joe Philips
Sound Design: Joe Philips, Jeremy Schemm
Mixing Engineer: Jeremy Schemm