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Encore Hollywood helped to set the tone for a ghoulish birthday party in providing post production services for a campaign promoting Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios theme parks in Florida and California. Arnold Ramm created an unusually creepy look for the 4-spot package, conceived by Los Angeles agency davidandgoliath, in which a quartet of creepsters celebrates the parks’s 16th annual event.

Ramm used a Spirit Datacine and a Da Vinci 2K color corrector to give film captured by Director Dean Karr and Cinematographer Checco Varese the look of an old-fashioned horror film. ‘We drained all of the color out of the film to create what I call a ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§moss and rust’s look,’ Ramm recalled. ‘The blacks were crushed and the shadows had a greenish tint. We then slowly dialed some of the color back in, letting it mix over the rusty background layer.’

The spot features the same cast of characters that has appeared in Horror Night spots in previous years, including a fiendish grandmother and a foul-looking mortician. In one of the current spots, the grizzly group sits down for birthday cake alongside a glass-topped casket in which someone has been buried alive.

Ramm used two telecine passes and eight power windows to make certain details in the scene stand out. ‘We brightened some areas and darkened others,’ noted Ramm. ‘We used a separate window on the live victim in the coffin so that you can see the sweat on his face.’

About Encore Hollywood

Encore Hollywood has been providing clients with quality service since its inception in 1985, while consistently remaining on the forefront of technological upgrades and advancements. The combination of award winning engineering, state-of-the-art technology and some of the most respected artists in the industry makes Encore Hollywood a one-stop-shopping destination for High Definition and Standard Definition telecine, on-line editing, and visual effects (2D and CGI).

Encore Hollywood specializes in video post-production and visual effects for Episodic Television and MOW’s, Commercials, Music Videos, and Feature Films. Encore recently opened a state-of-the-art theater for Digital Intermediate color correction

www.encorehollywood.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Visual Effects and design house Robot Rumpus has just released their new demo reel and it is awesome! Recent projects include commercials for Konami and Nestea as well as concert graphics for Nine Inch Nails!

RELATED LINKS
Click Here to view the Quicktime!

www.robotrumpus.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

This campaign was an amazing opportunity given to us by our friends over at Publicis Mojo in Sydney. First off, car ads are a cool medium for us because we’sre well versed in complex choreographies between camera and objects after doing impossible things in CG for years. Second, the idea for this project involved typography, and it pretty safe to say that there aren’st many directors working out there with more pedigree in typography and type design than us.

The basic premise of the campaign is that the highly evolved new Toyota Camry can ‘read the road’, with its many computer-controlled features including rain and light sensors, ABS, VSC, EBD, VDM etc. Anyway, the agency looked at H5 legendary Alex Gopher video and realized that there was something else that could be done with the idea ?‚àö√ë‚àö√Ü which is where we came in. Together, we developed the concept of shooting complete plates with the car on a location and then, step by step, replacing whatever is necessary to tell the story with words.

Wellington was chosen very early on for obvious reasons: An eclectic city, wild natural beauty and great crews. Plus, they drive on the left side of the street. When searching for locations and blocking and framing shots, we frequently experienced a mild sensation of dyslexia: Not only did we have to watch continuity in a world where (to us) everything is the wrong way around, we also had to make sure that the (at that point imaginary) type would be legible depending on what direction the cars and the camera are moving.

We spent a total of three weeks in New Zealand, starting with six days of location scouting. Four shooting days were spent in Wellington, where we shut down down town for a Sunday. Then we moved out into the country to the rolling green hills of Wairarapa, and the seaside at Ngawi, where we wrapped the production with one helicopter day.

Back in New York City for post production, the most interesting challenge was to design the type. We ended up designing just one custom-made alphabet for all the cars, but made all sorts of letter-like shapes for everything else. We made fun letters looking like buildings, trees, clouds, leaves and birds. We made letters carved into a cliff, and a flock of sheep forming a sentence. None of it could have been achieved with off-the-shelf fonts.

As for the compositing of the whole thing, it was to look as real as fantasy can be. Every shot had CG components that had to match our DP Chris White wonderful footage. Thankfully, we were given more than three months to finish 90 seconds worth of heavy CG.

RELATED LINKS
Click here to view video!
www.brandnewschool.com

CREDITS
Director
Brand New School:
Jonathan Notaro & Jens Gehlhaar

Shot on location in New Zealand

New Zealand production
Cherokee Films, Auckland
Director of photography:
Chris White
Production designer:
Danny Black
1st Assistant Director:
Toby Pease
Precision Driver:
Mark Prowse
Producer:
Katie Smith
Production Manager:
Carey Johnson

Post production
Brand New School, New York
Post production producer:
Amanda Slamin
Technical director
Dickson Chow
Flame artist:
Blake “The Colt” Huber
Compositors:
Irene Park, Bee Jin Tan, Jin Lee, Jose Fuentes, Amber Kusmenko
Rotoscopers:
Tonya Smay, Brendan Smith, Connie Conrad, Shana Silberberg, Anca Risa
Designers:
Keetra Dixon, Danny Ruiz, Eric Adolfsen, Ludovic “The Wolf” Schorno
3D artists:
Ylli Orana, Jordan Blit, Mike “Tequila” Papagni, Helen Choi, Kyle Cassidy, Kitty Lin, Kim Kehoe, Matt Connolly, Tony Barbeiri, Sung Kim, Doug Vitarelli, Ho Sik Nam
Concept artists:
Jonathan Notaro, Ronald Kuraiawan

Editorial
Blue Rock, New York
Editor:
Geordie Anderson

Agency
Publicis Mojo Australia, Sydney

Music
New Order, “Age of Consent”

Popularity: 3% [?]

Lewis is a brilliant inventor with a surprising number of clever inventions to his credit. His latest and most ambitious project is the Memory Scanner, a machine that will help him find his birth mother so they can become a family.

Lewis’s offbeat nature and unintentionally disastrous inventions keep him from obtaining the one thing he longs for the most ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® a family to call his own. He believes his only chance is to find his real mother and the Memory Scanner will extract his only memory of her.

But before he can find her, his invention is stolen by the dastardly Bowler Hat Guy and his diabolical hat and constant companion, Doris.

Wilbur Robinson is a mysterious stranger from the future whose biggest flaws ?Äì self-confidence, cocky attitude, and fast talking banter ?Äì are also his greatest assets. They enable Wilbur to stay one step ahead of his adversaries. Knowing that Lewis holds the key to the future, Wilbur whisks him away in his time machine where the two battle a ferocious dinosaur, mind-controlled frogs and evil villains all in an effort to save the world as Wilbur knows it.

Carl is the suave Robinson family robot, serving the family’s every need with wit and charm. In addition, he has the unfortunate job of constantly getting Wilbur out of trouble. Carl also has a way with the ladies, and by ladies, we mean the dishwasher, the coffee maker, and the teapot.

You can also check out the official movie site here!

Popularity: 3% [?]

The talented team at New York design and concept studio INTERspectacular have written and directed four, new animated commercials for Discovery The Science Channel. This exciting project featured the INTERspectacular team penning the channel popular new tagline: ‘A World Without Science is a World Without Discovery.’

This tagline serves as the creative premise behind the 4 new spots, as each one humorously tackles the question: what would the world we live in be like if we didn’st have the wonderful inventions science has provided? In ‘The Spirit of Invention,’ for example, a caveman attempts to fly by tying birds to his arms. Failing in his take-off, he says to his cohorts: ‘For lift off, I need more birds you Neanderthals!’ ‘The Art of Navigation’ shows Columbus at the wheel of one of his ships. When asked: ‘Where are we?’ He admits: ‘I don’st know’ and bursts into tears, as his three ships collide with one another. ‘Moon or Bust’ has a spaceman who thinks he needs more ladder; when in fact it is oxygen he requires. And in ‘The Wonder of Cloning,’ a scientist learns that you can’st really clone a sheep by pushing a mirror up to his face. Each spot ends with the channels’s new tagline and The Science Channel logo.

According to INTERspectacular Co-Founders/Creative Directors Luis Blanco and Michael Uman, not only was their team given creative carte blanche with the project direction and writing, but also with its choice of animation. They chose Illustrator Josh Cochran for the project, and as Uman says: ‘We used Josh drawings as the straight man to our comedy.’ Featuring a very 1950s palette with a little bit of retro thrown in, the illustrations have a ‘science pulp feel’ to them, similar to old science textbooks and education films.

Blanco notes too that this project emphasizes INTERspectacular continuing mission to diversify both in terms of its creative talent and client base. The studio has garnered numerous awards (including a series of Bronze awards at the 2006 Promax/BDA Conference) for its character animation for client Comedy Central. ‘We made an intentional and conscious visual departure with this project for The Science Channel.’

INTERspectacular looked at a number of animators and chose Ben Lee, who has his own toy company Nanospore. A fellow member of the ‘vinyl subculture,’ Lee was able to flesh out Cochran illustrations perfectly. Long-time friends, the duo attended college together but this was their first collaboration to date and a perfect pairing, explains INTERspectacular Executive Producer Greg Babiuk. ‘The key for this project,’ he says, ‘from a production standpoint was not getting in the way of the illustrations and animations. It took a delicate hand to stay true to the illustrations’s visual intent, and we achieved that.’ Other animators who worked on this project were Andrew Macfarlane and Efrain Cintron, with music & sound design by Human.

About INTERspectacular:
INTERspectacular was founded in 2003 by Creative Directors Luis Blanco and Michael Uman. Both Blanco and Uman have created brand and image campaigns for a variety of broadcast and commercial clients including the re-branding of Viacom Comedy Central Network in 2004. Under Blanco and Uman guidance, along with Executive Producer Greg Babiuk, INTERspectacular operates as part concept and design studio and part creative workshop. In addition to their work in motion graphics and print design, INTERspectacular work encompasses a diversity of projects including character development, interactive and alternative media, and the development of original content. The company was profiled by ‘Crain New York Business’ as an example of a 21st century company formed with a unique business model.

www.INTERspectacular.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Take a look at the latest commercial by studio BUF. The Ariston “Aqualtis” will blow you away, its probably one of the most innovative commercials to hit the TV circuit this year! Directed by Dario Piana and produced by Film Master!

Since the mid-eighties, BUF has been regarded as one of the most innovative visual effects companies in the world. The quality and originality of our work has earned us numerous awards. This level of achievement is obtained by going through preliminary stages of research and tools development. Our Research And Development department is in charge of designing and upgrading BUF’s special tools.

ne of BUF’s main credentials was to pioneer “camera mapping” and “stereo modelling” techniques. The “bullet time” effect created for Matrix was directly inspired by the research carried out by BUF while working on Michel Gondry’s “Like A Rolling Stone” music video in 1996.

UF is now one of the leading VFX companies in Europe, and is regularly involved in American feature film projects. Our Los Angeles office provides an easy and direct contact with our partners there.

BUF’s workforce now amounts to nearly 200 people, and our facility is equiped with more than a thousand processors. We are able to manage several-hundred-shot VFX projects, and to run full-fledged CGI characters animation projects.

Be it for commercials, feature films or CGI characters animation, BUF’s reputation originates in our reliability and technical know-how.

Click Here to see the Video!

Research & Development
Since the mid-eighties, BUF has been known as one of the most innovative companies in the digital effects market. The quality and originality of our work has earned us numerous awards. In order to achieve this quality and keep it a step ahead of the competition, BUF developed since the beginnings its own proprietary tools. Our research and development team, composed of engineers from the most reputable universities and engineer schools, works to achieve this goal : building and improving the tools to make and ease the creation of future special effects.

For more information see the BUF website at www.buf.fr

BUF Paris
3 Rue Roqu?©pine 75 008 Paris ?ãÖ France ?ãÖ
Tel. +33 1 42 68 18 28 ?ãÖ Fax +33 1 42 68 18 29

BUF Pantin
48 rue Auger 93 500 Pantin ?ãÖ France ?ãÖ
Tel. +33 1 49 42 79 00 ?ãÖ Fax +33 1 49 42 79 57

BUF Inc.
7720 W. Sunset Boulevard ?ãÖ Los Angeles, CA 90046 ?ãÖ U.S.A.
Tel. +1 323 512 6000 ?ãÖ Fax +1 323 512 6075

Popularity: 3% [?]

For those of you who never saw it you have to check out this Blast from the Past! “Work In Progress” is a really cool short 3d animated film from ILM about 3 people who make creatures in a fantasy world.

They work togeather as a team and without one of them nothing can happen, but its the girl who has the power of imagination and makes the normal something special. This short was first released at Siggraph 2003, was later taken down from the web, and is now back up online!

The characters in the short are never named but there are three:

The idea man: he comes up with the plan and the idea
The mechanic: he builds what the idea man dreams up
The girl: You have to check the short movie out to see what she adds and what she does!

Watch the movie on ILM’s site a the following link: http://www.ilm.com/ilmshorts.html

… if you never saw it before its great stuff, wonderfully done!

Industrial Light & Magic

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Switch VFX, a visual effects studio specializing in photorealistic effects and CG character creation for feature films and television, has completed visual effects production for the upcoming feature film “Saw III.” As the sole effects house, Switch VFX created more than 130 shots under the supervision of vfx supervisor Jon Campfens for the psychologically extreme film. Set for a Halloween release from Lions Gate Pictures, “Saw III” is described as the most disturbing chapter in the popular horror franchise, with terrifying new plot twists.

Switch VFX also served as the primary effects facility for the Disney Channel’s “Santa Baby,” for which it produced extensive CG shots and matte paintings. Switch VFX recently completed matte paintings for the AMC mini-series “Broken Trail,” directed by Walter Hill and starring Robert Duvall, and wrapped effects production on the NBC/Lifetime television drama series “Angela’s Eyes.”

Switch VFX executive producer Pete Denomme said “We are very proud to have contributed to the visual horror of “Saw III” and we’re delighted with our entire production slate through 2007. Our new projects will provide great creative and technical challenges for our artists, and will also give us the opportunity to expand our studio’s size and capabilities.”

View the Saw III Trailer Here!

About Switch VFX
Switch VFX is a Toronto-based visual effects studio specializing in the production of photorealistic digital visual effects and CG character creation for feature films and television. Switch VFX was founded in 2004 by visual effects supervisor Jon Campfens, executive producer Pete Denomme and finance and business affairs executive Laurie Thompson, all of whom have had distinguished careers in the industry, with the intent to bring experience and talent to a highly responsive, affordable and independent new venture. Switch VFX is the visual effects division of Yowza Digital, Inc., which produces 3D animation for feature films and television.

www.switchfx.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Make up effects artist and Designer Eddie Yang talks about the move from practical to digital, his daily work, Eddie Murphy and his career along side industry legends such as Rick Baker and Stan Winston.

Check Out The Interview Here!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Artist-owned-and-operated visual effects studio Brickyard VFX has wrapped a :30 spot for Timberland via Arnold Worldwide, Boston. The spot, beautifully shot and directed by The Cronenweths on a sunny day was turned into a stormy afternoon with the help of Brickyard’s talented effects and CGI teams. Broadcast and cinema versions of the spot break nationally on October 24th.

The spot opens on a wide cinematic view of a lone man walking across the top of hill into the face of a rapidly advancing thunderstorm. As the storm and man meet, both stop their advance as if in a standoff. He reaches out his hand to touch the raindrops then zips up his Timberland coat, looks down at his Timberland boots and pulls on his hood. Then with a subtle smirk, he resumes his walk into the storm with a confident stride.

“This spot was a real leap of faith-shooting on a bright sunny day when we knew that the final spot would have to appear as if it were shot in a heavy rainstorm. Having Geoff on set was totally reassuring, I trust him wholeheartedly,” said Colin Jeffery, Creative Director and Art Director, Arnold Worldwide. “Working with Brickyard is always a great collaboration, we have worked with them on many occasions, they are as passionate about the creative as we are, and always add their magic touch.”

Knowing that the rain would be added later in post, a rain rig on set was used to capture plates that could be used both for reference and composites. However the opening and closing shots were so wide that all of the rainfall had to be created in CG. Geoff McAuliffe was on set as visual effects supervisor and worked with Brickyard VFX CGI team Robin Hobart and Yafei Wu to design the computer generated rain and mist. They worked together with the client and editor Andre Betz of Bug Editorial to time and art direct the movement of the rain and define how far it would come down the hill in the foreground as the storm advances forward.

“This spot was a lot of fun to work on because it posed the challenge of creating something out of nothing and maintaining a consistent believable look across several very wide shots,” explained McAuliffe, “The Cronenweths always shoot great looking footage and it was a lot of fun to work with them again.”

Additional effects included adding soft movement to the tree that appears in frame to be affected by the downpour, adding interactive raindrops into the close-up shots of the hand and boot and compositing in rain clouds, sourced via stock footage provider Prairie Pictures in Texas. The client and Arnold were so pleased with the spot that Brickyard is also working extended effects for a soon-to-be-released :60 second version of the clip.

Credits:
Client: Timberland
Agency: Arnold Worldwide – Boston
Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat
CD/Copywriter: Chris Carl
CD/Art Director: Colin Jeffery, John Kieselhorst
Agency Producer: Carron Pedonti
Production Company: Untitled – Santa Monica
Director: Tim Cronenweth, Jeff Cronenweth
Director of Photography: Jeff Cronenweth
Executive Producer: Jim Evans
Line Producer: Ken Rosen
Editorial Company: Bug Editorial
Editor: Andre Betz
VFX: Brickyard VFX – Boston/Santa Monica
VFX Artist: Geoff McAuliffe
VFX Producer: Kirsten Andersen
Sound Design: 740 Sound Design – Santa Monica
Sound Designer: Mike Secher
Recording Studio: Soundtrack Recording- Boston
Recording Engineer: Mike Secher
Editorial Producer: Jane Weintrub

About Brickyard VFX
Located in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard VFX is an independent visual effects boutique specializing in top quality visual effects from 3D characters through to compositing. Completely artist owned and operated, the company was founded in 1999 to bring clients a level of customer service, craftsmanship and focus difficult to find at facilities today. Brickyard’s problem-solving expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, rotoscope, color correct and render seamless digital effects for XM Radio, Citibank, Volkswagen, Target, Tyson Foods and many other accounts.

www.brickyardvfx.com

Popularity: 3% [?]