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Bicoastal creative production company Stardust Studios (www.stardust.tv) is very proud to detail its recent work for R/GA, the advertising agency for the digital age, on a web-exclusive 1:39 brand video entitled “What’s Your Game About” for Nike Brand. In developing the project, R/GA’s creative team called upon Stardust to provide original design and animation custom-tailored to Nike’s Flight, Force and Uptempo brands, which are showcased in the finished piece. The video is currently featured on NikeBasketball.com.

To quickly execute the designs envisioned by art directors Felipe Posada and Doug Purver, Stardust’s team managed the workflow from New York while also enlisting support from the company’s Santa Monica studio.

Purver also served as lead animator, and together with animator Daniel Garcia and 3D artist Cary Janks, the team created elements that organically enhance the stylishly edited live-action footage of NBA star players, while also heightening the visual impact of the messaging.

Stardust’s team also included executive creative director Jake Banks, executive producer Eileen Doherty and senior producer Michael Neithardt, and their team’s work involved the artistic use of Maya, Cinema 4D, and Adobe After Effects and Creative Suite.

“The creatives from R/GA gave us the unique opportunity to create some really elegant animation to visually take this project to another level,” Banks explained. “Even though it was for web-distribution only, we approached it the same way we do every high-end broadcast project we handle. We’re all proud of how it came out – and we’re also very grateful for this opportunity to work with R/GA and Nike Brand.”

About Stardust Studios
Stardust is an award-winning creative production company, specializing in motion design, animation, visual effects and live-action production. Led by executive creative director Jake Banks, Stardust’s Santa Monica and New York offices continually redefine cutting-edge aesthetics for commercial, on-air, music video and in-store presentations. Their recent work – including projects for the world’s top ad agencies, brands and recording artists – has earned numerous awards and worldwide editorial exposure. For more information, please visit www.stardust.tv or call Eileen Doherty at 310.399.6047.

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Baraka Post Production in Soho created the special effects for Richard E Grant’s new film debut titled “Wah Wah”. The film was directed and written by Richard E Grant with a title chosen to portray the incomprehensible manner in how affected British ex-pats spoke, a silly babyish way of talking called “Wah Wah”. Senior Editor and Joint MD at Baraka, David Cox completed all of the special effects for “Wah Wah” at Baraka using Mistika. The main task was to remove labels from the bottles of a well-known whiskey brand name and replace it with an alternative in the film. This called for dedication as the labels had to appear realistic as if they were pasted on a 3D bottle of whiskey. The labelled bottles appeared in a number of scenes in the film and therefore had to be carefully altered. Richard E. Grant personally met David Cox in the editing suite at Baraka and discussed the film and the effects with the team at Baraka.

”The labels looked fantastic and Richard was extremely happy as was Jeff from Scion. You did a brilliant job. Thank you Baraka from Richard and myself. We hope to work with Baraka again in the near future. Again Baraka, thank you for giving our nightmare a happy ending!!” stated the team at Zephyr Productions.

“Replacing the whiskey bottle labels was tricky because the reason for the replacement was legal rather than creative, meaning that the shots were never intended to have any special effects work carried out on them. The bottles with the offending labels generally appeared in scenes where the bottle was being aggressively shaken, thrown or even rinsed under running water! So this provided a unique set of tracking and compositing challenges. We started by creating a 2D whiskey bottle label that we later used Mistika to wrap around three sides of the bottle. We then 3D-tracked all the bottle movements and composited the new labels adding lighting effects, motion blur and water effects as required. All the tracking and compositing was carried out in Mistika on the supplied 2K DPX file sequences, before being printed back to 35mm film.” David Cox explains.

“Baraka did a seamless job of CGIing and replacing whiskey bottle labels in my film “Wah-Wah” at very short notice and with great professionalism.” Commented Richard E. Grant.

”Wah-Wah” is set in Richard’s homeland of Swaziland and is a semi-autobiographical story focusing on his dysfunctional family life. The film is a semi-autobiographical ‘coming of age at the end of an Age’ story, told through the eyes of young Ralph Compton (the character based on Richard). It is set during the last gasp of the British Empire in Swaziland in1969, and the plot focuses on the Compton family whose gradual disintegration mirrors the end of British rule. As an 11 year old, Ralph witnesses his mother’s adultery with his father’s best friend who is married to ‘Auntie’ Gwen (played by Julie Walters), which results in his parents divorcing and Ralph being sent to boarding school. His father, Harry Compton, not only loses his wife and best friend, but he also loses his position as Minister of Education with the coming of Independence, prompting his rapid descent into alcoholism. At 14 Ralph – who is played by Nicholas Holt (‘About a Boy’) from now on – returns home to discover that his father has re-married an American ex-Air hostess called Ruby (played by Emily Watson) whom he has known all of six weeks! Not the done thing in this very ‘well-to-do’ society. Ruby ridicules the petty snobbery of Colonial life by identifying Colonial-speak, for example ‘toodle-pip’, as sounding like a load of old ‘Wah-Wah’. Although Ralph is initially wary of Ruby, he bonds with her as his father’s drinking escalates dangerously out of control.

“Wah-Wah” will be released in cinemas on Friday 2nd June 2006.

www.wahwahmovie.co.uk

Baraka turns 10 years old this year, 2006 is Baraka’s tenth year celebrating the company’s success and achievements. View the new website at: www.Baraka.co.uk

CREDITS:

Post production company: Baraka Post Production

Online Editor at Baraka: David Cox

Production Company: Zephyr Films

Director: Richard E. Grant

Writer: Richard E. Grant

Co-production with Paris based Loma Nasha Productions.

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson, Julie Walters, Miranda Richardson, Nicholas Hoult
Director of Photography: Pierre Aïm
Backers: Scion Films

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XSI Base’s Raffael Dickreuter talks about virtual performances to Actress Sara Rehnmark who performed Kitty Hunting in the Sofitmage Face Robot demo videos. Includes some cool behind-the-scenes pictures from the shoot. See it Here.

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With the 2006 World Cup just around the corner, 150,000 soccer fans in 28 countries have taken advantage of the rare opportunity to see the original World Cup trophy up close as part of the FIFA “World Cup Trophy Tour.” As part of the unique experience, the FIFA World Cup Tour commissioned Ramat Gan, Israel-based character animation firm, Crew972, to produce an introductory 3D animated film.

Sponsored by Coca-Cola, the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour has just finished its run of 31 cities on four continents. From Accra in Ghana to Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, through Mexico City, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Riyadh, Beijing, Jakarta, Tokyo and Sydney, to London, Kiev and Athens, tens of thousands of fans flocked to the exhibition. Exhibition spaces were specially constructed next to each stadium on the tour to house both the famous Cup along with a huge 5×7 meter screen for the animation. Special 3D glasses were distributed to fans to view the three-minute stereoscopic clip. The trophy tour is now continuing to Germany, as the countdown continues to the start of the competition in June 2006.

Dramatically visual and not tied to language, Crew972’s animation reflects soccer’s universalism and global appeal. According to Crew972’s creative director, Alex Orrelle, the animation sought to present the “pure spirit of the game, the energy, skill and dynamism of its players and to showcase the iconic Cup itself.”

The clip begins in space where the starry figure of the legendary footballer Pele appears. He boots a soccer ball made of cosmic dust through the galaxies, its momentum carving tunnels through golden seas, until two mythical figures rise up towards the ball, fusing together in the form of the World Cup Trophy.

The $130,000 World Cup Trophy film was produced by South Africa-based Haptics with animation partners Snowball VFX.

Crew972 is Israel’s leading 3D animation company, specializing in 3D character animation services and creating original animated entertainment for film, television and videogame formats. Crew972 is led creatively by Alex Orrelle, a veteran of Pixar Animation Studios where he worked on movie hits such as THE INCREDIBLES and FINDING NEMO. Orrelle’s short animation, FREEWARE, won the Sundance Online Film Festival Prize in 2001. For more information, visit www.crew972.com.

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This campaign focuses more on what your mobile phone can do for you and The Mill have created a beautiful journey for our hero’s bubble as it travels through a world of music, film, sport and games. The Mill animation team lead by Jordi Bares have created a more dynamic and ‘real’ bubble for this new campaign within a surreal world. The 50-second advertisement includes new animation techniques used for the first time in the UK with The Mill creating exciting new visual effects to promote O2’s fresh thinking, innovation and creativity.

Jordi and the animation team have created rippling windows pulsating to the base beat and 3D buildings made out of moving piano keys to represent the music services. We see our bubble involved in a game of tennis ‘pong’ between two buses and exploding into millions of bubbles over a stadium containing a celebrating crowd.

This was a challenging project for the Mill’s animation team. All the bubbles are 3D as are most of the buildings and the team spent time on the reflections on the hero bubble, building/ film strips and the building/ piano keys. The most intricate section is when we are following the bubble overhead and the whole perspective of the piece is switched – the vertical edge of the building below becomes the new horizon of the surreal O2 world.

Click here to view video!

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If you think “American Idol” is strictly an American phenomenon, listen up. As the hit show wraps it fifth and highest-rated season yet, the “Idol” sensation rolls on, around the world. The concept that originally captivated the British and swept 35 million Americans off their feet has found impassioned audiences in India, China, Iceland, Croatia, France and 31 other countries, to date.

Aerodrome, the multi-Emmy winning brand design agency commissioned to create high-definition main titles plus promotional and scenic components for “American Idol,” is now working with “Idol” production company 19 Entertainment and Freemantle Media to produce titles and packaging for the “Idol” franchise, worldwide.

“If ‘globalization’ means anything in the entertainment business, Idol is a headliner,” says Aerodrome creative director, Scott Miller. “Who could predict that a twist on the long-forgotten variety hour format would catch fire here, then take Uzbekistan by storm? Only a handful of programs in the history of television have generated global appeal on this level.”

Jill Katz, Aerodrome’s executive producer adds, “It’s been fascinating to take part in iChat conversations with producers in Germany, Australia, Canada and so many other countries as we work to shape Idol packaging to fit their needs and cultures.”

How long can Idol last? It’s a question that comes up with each new “American Idol” season. The inflection attached to the question depends on your position in the programming food chain. No matter how you say it, Idol is one big fish.

CREDITS FOR “AMERICAN IDOL:”

AERODROME
Scott Miller, Director
Stephen Fitzgerald, Designer/Animator
Andrew Marshall, Associate Designer/Animator
Jason Shulman, Character Animator
Jill Katz, Producer

19 ENTERTAINMENT
Ken Warwick, Executive Producer
Nigel Lythgoe, Executive Producer
Wylleen May, Production Executive
Craig Gooder, Post-Production Supervisor

FREEMANTLE MEDIA
Cecile Frot-Coutaz, Executive Producer
Toby Prosser, Creative Director, Licensing

Hardware/Software Used:

Macintosh multiple G5 2.5 GHZ
Lightwave 7.5 native, Fprime 1.0
Adobe After Effects 6.0
Ultimate Advantage

ABOUT AERODROME:
Based in Los Angeles and founded in l991, Aerodrome is a brand identity services agency that assists entertainment companies with the presentation, promotion and marketing of television programs and networks, worldwide. Aerodrome Pictures, Inc., is located at 1975 DeMille Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90027, 323-953-6800.

For info, please visit www.aerodrome.com.

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