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VooDooDog has created the opening title sequence for Love In The Time Of Cholera directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral,Donnie Brasco,Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) based on the bestselling novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The title sequence was created by Paul Donnellon of VooDooDog, Produced by David Z.Obadiah and Noel Donnellon with title design and compositing by Andrew White it consists of an emerging jungle of bright flowers that have the feel of a moving oil painting.

Paul Donnellon explains: “The idea was to give a feeling of the colors and atmosphere of South America for the audience. The animation was a bit painstaking to produce as each frame of the beautifully rendered flowers had to move in a different way, rather than some mechanical animation.” The team studied time-lapse footage and went for painting-like foliage with an accurate moving feel.

Love In The Time Of Cholera is a love triangle set in turn-of-the-century South America, where two lovers wait out careers, marriages, affairs and deaths until they can reunite. The film stars John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet) , Laura Harring (Mulholland Dr.) and Liev Schreiber (The Omen). Love In The Time Of Cholera, a New Line Cinema / Stone Village Pictures film opens in the USA from November 16th 2008.

For Further Information on Love In The Time Of Cholera visit: www.loveinthetime.com

VooDooDog
4th Floor, Suffolk House,
1-8 Whitfield Place,
London
W1T 5JU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7387 2049
Mob: +44 (0)797 136 6536

Website: www.voodoodog.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Renowned New York animation geniuses Jonathan Gorin and Naomi Nishimura of PandaPanther in New York, have created a Braveheart-meets-Care Bears battlefield drama in the new Zune Arts film, “Masks.”

A war between angry robots and paunchy blue critters set to the dark, brooding sounds of Austin’s The Black Angels, the film explores how peace can be better achieved by trading perspectives, not blows.

“PandaPanther have a wonderful knack for expressing complex ideas in simple ways. We talked a lot about the transformative power of seeing the world through another person’s perspective. It’s a heady concept but they found a way to make it clear, fun, ridiculous and provocative all at the same time. Someone should ask them to solve global warming and see what they come up with.” Glenn Cole, Creative Director, 72andSunny.

Zune Arts
Zune Arts is a place where emerging artists collaborate on inspiring works of art; where sharing, connection, discovery and friendship is celebrated; a place that’s continuously growing, ever evolving and always open to new voices, influences and ideas.

Credits
Animation: PandaPanther
Music: “Young Men Dead” / The Black Angels
Creative Direction: 72andSunny

Related Links:

www.pandapanther.com
www.theblackangels.com
www.zune-arts.net

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Smoke & Mirrors New York make Tony Hawk and his peeps into birds on a wire in this viral campaign for Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground videogame.

These playful birds have their human heads and faces attached to pigeon bodies. The four famed skating champs exchange friendly quips as they watch the scenes and feature capabilities of the game far below their perch.

Not wanting to create everything in 3D, Director Martin Granger and Creative Director Sean Broughton went old school and decided that costumes from the chest up were the way to go. Consideration was made for the scaling down of the boys to fit the pigeons when choosing a fabric texture to match the feathers of their avian halves.

The pigeons were shot first on the pre-light day, with lighting which would complement the skaters as well as the pigeons. Shot against green screen and transferred High Def to allow for zooms in post, tracking markers were positioned where the human/bird join was going to be. This was important because when the pigeons twist and turn, it would affect specific areas that would need to match on the skaters.

Next came the skaters. Martin wanted to shoot the boys at the same time to allow for interaction. Again shot green screen, and transferred High Def, the costumed boys were captured moving their heads freely while keeping their torso’s as still as possible with Smoke and Mirrors NY supervising the shoot.

The latest version of Autodesk Flame utilized tracked extended bi-cubics to marry the two halves together. The backgrounds were taken from the game and dropped in behind the eventual avian skater.

About Smoke & Mirrors:
Founded by Creative Director Sean Broughton, CEO Penny Verbe and CTO Mark Wildig lead the New York and London-based design, animation and VFX studio Smoke & Mirrors. It has been synonymous with creativity, originality, and innovation since its inception.

Smoke & Mirrors has always succeeded because of its collaborative approach, building strong creative relationships with directors, producers, agencies and clients alike.

Creds:

Client: Activision
Spot Title: “Hecklers”
Air Date: Oct 2007

Agency: Arnold
CD: Roger Baldacci
Art Director: Meg Siegal
Copywriter: Pete Harvey
Producer: Billy Near

Prod Company: Moxie Pictures
Director: Martin Granger
EP: Karol Marrs Post/Effects: Smoke & Mirrors/NY
CD: Sean Broughton
Lead VFX Artists: Nick Tanner
Head of Production: Cary Flaum
VFX Producer: Barbara Kontarovich

Editorial: Bug Editorial
Editor: Andre Betz
Producer: Joy Copeland

Telecine: The Mill NY
Colorist: Fergus McCall

Music: Tonal
Composer: Alex Lasarenko

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Capturing the essence of the holiday season, SWAY studio adds life, spirit and a sense of romanticism to the newest Chandon Sparkling Wine commercial entitled “After Party.”

SWAY’s talented team of artists combined detailed character animation with high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) and their renowned photogrammetry techniques to add precision and energy to this fanciful spot which is currently airing on select US cable and network broadcast stations.

The :30 spot captures a private moment between two magical characters, evolving from a Chandon bottle’s wire cage and foil, as they share a secret tango among romantic computer generated table top candles, chilled bottles of Chandon, and the sparkle of city lights.

“The challenge in this project was to evoke passion and emotion from characters made simply from foil and wire,” said Mark Glaser, owner and creative director of SWAY. “I was really pleased with the way the characters turned out, especially the woman. She has a lot of personality and attitude. I really wish this was a :60 spot as I would have loved to have had the opportunity to develop these characters even more.”

SWAY started with a professional live action tango duo, directing them to create the performance that would be used for the wire characters. Because the dancers were so intertwined at times, SWAY opted to use motion capture techniques, instead of multi-camera video reference. To provide the correct quality of movement, SWAY used the motion capture data applied to the wire characters as a reference to animate the hero wire characters in 3D space. Once the wire characters were moving in 3D via motion capture, Glaser was able to shoot a variety of action coverage as if he had a virtual camera crew and dancers on stage.

“It was important to me that the characters were shot using techniques that would be used if I were shooting real dancers,” Glaser noted. “I didn’t want live action plate shots of a life size camera trying to capture angles looking into the dancers’ miniature world. To help immerse the audience in that world, I wanted the camera to dance with the characters and move at their scale as if we had a 6-inch tall film crew.”

To allow complete freedom in shooting the dance sequence, SWAY additionally recreated the entire interior location, including the champagne bottles, table candles and twinkling city lights, utilizing their renowned photo real CG, HDRI, compositing and photogrammetry techniques. The end result is a spot that is almost entirely computer generated as only seven of the 24 shots contain live action.

SWAY used a variety of off-the-shelf hardware and software to complete the Chandon spot. The most prominently used tools were NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics boards, Nuke for compositing, Scratch for color grading, V-Ray for lighting and rendering and After Effects for logo treatment. 3ds Max 9 was used as the primary animation tool while Lumonix Puppetshop was also used for final character rigging and animation.

About SWAY
SWAY is one of the top animation, effects and design studios in North America whose aim is to advance the artistry of visual content, enabling exciting new creative ideas in any media. SWAY’s world class artists use cutting edge and innovative technology to produce unforgettable imagery.

SWAY’s proprietary software, the SWAY Drive-A-Tron™ driving simulator has been used to create stunning visual effects and spots for Chevy, Mazda, Pontiac, Subaru, Hyundai, Hummer and Toyota. This software replicates the performance of any vehicle with complete precision.

Click here to view Chandon Sparkling Wine “After Party.”

Production Credits
Agency- Denstu America
Chief Creative Officer – Mike Wilson
Senior VP- Diane Dreyer
Management Supervisor – Kathleen DeFreitas
Associate Creative Director – Elke Erschfeld
Associate Creative Director/Copywriter- David Muldoon
Producer- Tim Ward
Editorial- Mad House NYC
Editor- Ben Whitten
Producer- Deb Degnan
Production- SWAY studio
Director- Mark Glaser
Executive Producer – Leighton Greer
Production Manager- Katie Molenaar
Director of Photography- Stefan Von Borbely
Producer- Larry Ewing
Visual Effects – SWAY studio
Creative Director- Mark Glaser
Executive Producer – Leighton Greer
Producer- Larry Ewing
Coordinator- Christine Felman/ Lauren Haggard
3D Supervisor- Chris Nichols
VFX /2D Supervisor- Marc Rienzo
Flame- Ben Looram
Technical Director – Graham Fyffe
Texture/Rigging/Lighter – Rob Meyers
Lighter – Daniel Buck
Cloth Animator/Rigging – Mike Walls
Animator/Rigging – Attila Zalanyi
Animator – Gordon Fales
Animator – Jim Richardson
Lead Animator – Robert Glazer
Compositor – Chris Bankoff
Compositor- Maciek Sokalski
Compositor – Lauren Mayer-Beug
Compositor – Linda Tremblay

www.swaystudio.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

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The new Mary J. Blige video Just Fine is a visual tour de force as the Grammy-winning singer performs the song accompanied by curly-cue beams of light, shattering mirrors and CG doves.

The elegantly crafted visual effects are the work of the Los Angeles digital studio KromA, which teamed with director Chris Applebaum on the project—the same combination responsible for the widely acclaimed Rihanna video Umbrella.

The video presents Blige in differing outfits and set against a variety of artsy backdrops. In the opening scene, she dances in front of a stylized sunset background while appearing to cast off twisting beams of iridescent light.

“It was hand-animated with 2D-like paint strokes,” explained KromA Visual Effects Supervisor Bert Yukich. “Effects were applied on top of that to give it that streaky light look.”

The sequence ends with a reverse explosion as the following scene set inside a hall of mirrors builds itself almost instantly out of thousands of shards of glass.

The mirror hall scene itself was previsualized in 3D by KromA so that Applebaum could “choreograph” the infinite reflections that appear in the glass and place the camera where it wouldn’t be seen.

“We built a complete replica of the set in 3D,” Yukich explained. “In post, we rotoscoped out Mary and the edges of the mirrors so that the shots look clean and seamless.”

Arguably the most beautiful scene in the video appears near the end. Blige, wearing a simple white dress, performs in a black limbo environment as doves streak around her leaving wispy white vapor trails. The birds are CG and the vapor trails are more hand-crafted animation from Yukich and his KromA team.

“It has a smoky texture and she can put her hand through—it’s a new technique that we came up with,” Yukich observed. “The trails were accomplished with hand-animated vector paint. It is a unique combination of 2D and 3D animation.”

Just Fine, from Blige’s upcoming album Growing Pains on Geffen, debuted on BET, MTV, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, VH1 and VH1 Soul.

Click here to view ‘Just Fine’

www.kroma.biz

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Luma Pictures helped recreate the brutal, untamed landscape of the New American West in providing visual effects for the new Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men.

The studio was the sole visual effects supplier for the film, delivering more than 60 shots, including stunningly real CG wildlife and impossible action sequences. No Country for Old Men will be released by Miramax Films November 9.

Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men is a tense, violent and darkly witty tale that centers on a multi million dolar drug deal that goes bad in the unforgiving hinterland of the West Texas. When Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the abandoned loot, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law can contain. Luma’s role in the film was to help the filmmakers portray the unforgiving, outlaw nature of the story, but to do so imperceptibly and in a way that did not distract from the film’s graphic, unblinking realism.

“Most audience members would not consider this to be a visual effects film,” said Luma Pictures Visual Effects Supervisor, Vince Cirelli, “but the work subtly contributes to the unflinching vision of the Coen Brothers at the top of their game.”

One of Luma’s most impressive accomplishments is a hunting sequence where Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) kills a pronghorn antelope and then stumbles upon several dead bodies. All told, the dozens of animals pictured in the sequence are CG. Luma artists developed a number of distinct antelope models representing animals of varying sex and age, and each one was animated to reflect a variety of individual performances. The artists studied various wildlife documentaries and biomechanics research in order to better understand natural animal behavior and movement. The inclusion subtleties such as tail twitches and the independent movement of the ears in the animation helped to give life and realism to the CG versions.

“Each Pronghorn has a different reaction to its environment and the other animals around it as well as a unique panic response to the gun shots. This level of detail helped to make the shots more realistic,” explained Animation Supervisor Raphael Pimentel.

In order to integrate the CG herd into the live action background, Luma artists added CG grass and ground cover to make the blend more seamless. Dust and debris that gets kicked up as the animals flee was also added in order to really sell the shot.

Additionally, Luma artists produced a variety of sequences to help realize the Coen Brothers’ vision for the film. Among the supplementary 3D sequences were photo-realistic CG birds, a CG commercial airplane, and CG destruction and debris. Supplementary 2D sequences included composites, matte paintings and a variety of shot enhancements. All of the sequences where executed at the highest level of quality, Luma’s trademark for all of their projects. “It was an honor to work for such great film makers, and we certainly hope to work with the Coen Brothers on future projects.” notes Executive Visual Effects Supervisor, Payam Shohadai.

About Luma Pictures
Luma Pictures is a leading provider of visual effects services to Hollywood with a reputation for artistic integrity, technical innovation and efficient production. The company served has provided visual effects for top tier features including: Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (Walt Disney Pictures/ Jerry Bruckheimer Films), Apocalypto (Buena Vista/Icon), Rush Hour 3 (New Line Cinema) The Covenant (Screen Gems/Lakeshore), The Holiday (Columbia Pictures), Crash (Lions Gate) and Ray (Universal Pictures).

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Click 3X provides the visual effects in a stylistic and satirical music video for Mark Ronson’s international hit cover of the Smith’s classic, Stop Me, where the streets of Los Angeles overflow with animated tears.

The video opens with Mark Ronson walking alone at night. Passing a lonely woman, he notices large blue cartoon tears streaming down her face, leaving a trail of puddles behind her. As the song builds and Ronson navigates the city, he encounters more women, each with cartoon tears pouring from their otherwise emotionless faces.

The puddles coalesce into streams, the streams into rivers, the rivers into waterfalls, until the entire setting is awash in a rising current of vibrant tear drops. Ronson finally wades through the chest deep water to meet up with Daniel Merriweather, who is also featured in Stop Me. As dawn breaks and the music slows, the torrent of tears subsides and both the eyes of the original woman, as well as the city streets, begin to dry.

From Director Matt Lenski of Draw Pictures:
The song has a grand orchestral feel, but also has a real coolness to it. We wanted to capture that emotional outpouring with a really original video, yet introduce elements of satire with the tears. The effects played a major role in supporting the story; as the emotional drive of the song gains momentum, so do these huge cartoon tears. The musical flow and the animation worked really well together to create a totally unified storyline.

From Click 3X’s VFX Supervisor Mark Szumski:
From a VFX perspective, the piece was really complex. It included over 100 effects shots as well as 10 three-dimensional components. We wanted to give the tears- which were illustrated by Todd James (AKA REAS) – a totally unique look and feel, so this involved significant motion testing to create the right flow. Working under really tight time constraints, the real challenge was orchestrating the visual effects with the flow of the song, creating the perfect visual environment to support the depth and emotion without a lot of time to go back and forth.

Click 3X continues to build on an impressive run of VFX for web, print and broadcast media. With Stop Me, the company was able to leverage many of the techniques used in the highly- acclaimed clip they developed with MTV for Dr. Octagon’s hit Trees.

About Click 3X
Click 3X produces cutting-edge visual solutions for advertising, broadcast, and entertainment clients around the globe. Founded in 1993, New York-based Click 3X has become the preeminent digital studio led by artists and supported by the most advanced technology in the industry. With award-winning design, powerful visual effects, and a visionary animation team, Click 3X lends both its talent and resources to a wide range of both innovative and influential projects. www.click3x.com

CREDS
Prod Company: Draw Pictures
Director: Matt Lenski
DP: Ketil Dietrichson
Illustrator/Designer: Todd James
EP: Phil Tidy

Post/Effects: Click 3X
VFX Supervisor/Lead VFX/Inferno Artist: Mark Szumski
Additional Flame: Aaron Vasquez, Yoshiko Hirata
Flame Assistant: Sarah Cargiulo
Lead After Effects: Matt St. Leger
Additional After Effects: Tom Matheu
Head of CGI: Anthony Filipakis
EP: Jason Mayo
Producer: Cara Buckley
Editorial: Now Corporation
Editor: Owen Plotkin
Assistant Editor: Matt Toder
EP: Nancy Finn

Popularity: 18% [?]

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The new commercial for Honda Odyssey lives up to the vehicle’s name, taking viewers on an unexpected ride with the iconography of a time when people knew to “Respect the Van.”

Created in collaboration between ad agency RPA and design/production company Nylon, the spot uses visual wizardry (literally) to brand one of the leading minivans in the catagory.

“We wanted to create an ode to an era when the van was a symbol of cool and marry it to the apex product in the field, the Honda Minivan,” says RPA Art Director Tatum Cardillo. “The spot straddles the fine line of between homage and hilarious as we enter the world of ultimate van art: the airbrushed Nordic Viking God against the thumping track of Heart’s hit song Barracuda.”

“Nylon was chosen was due to their creative vision and ability to think outside of the box. It turned out to be both a collaborative and positive experience,” adds RPA Sr. VP, Executive Producer Gary Paticoff.

“This was an incredibly exciting project for many reasons including the fact that so many kinds of techniques were involved including live action, animation, and visual effects,” says Nylon Creative Director Bryan Lee. “We really got to exercise our creative muscle and on a theatrical spot at that.”

Nylon directed both the live action and animation which included a never before seen technique to capture the airbrush aesthetic complete with its signature fuzzy line quality.

“The concept is truly inspiring,” adds Creative Director Jason Cook, “and we embraced the challenge of developing the look and execution of the airbrush come to life working hand-in-hand with the animation team at Titmouse. This effect runs counter to typical direction because most van art is created by non-trained artists and, thus, it had to look rough hewn and great all at the same time.”

Nylon was founded by Joe Montalbano who joined forces with Bryan Lee and Jason Cook to create design-driven projects for all media with an emphasis on storytelling, Their collaboration began with a stop-motion origami music video for The Format and a live-action/animation music video for Bittersweet. These projects were followed by brand-elevating work for Ditech, which earned recognition from peers and clients alike. Nylon is based in a loft studio in the new hotbed of cool culture: downtown Los Angeles. The location offers clients and employees a new vantage point on the city in a neighborhood that includes art galleries, restaurants, sports and cultural venues.

“Nylon is the natural next step for all of us and we are truly excited to develop a creative and humane environment – where people can grow, learn and produce interesting art and be recognized for their contribution,” says EP Joe Montalbano. “It’s about great work and having fun, which is all anyone can ask for in their careers, and this project exemplifies that experience.”

To learn more visit: www.nylon.la

CREDITS
Honda “Viking”
Agency: RPA/Los Angeles
Freelance Producer: Randy Morton
Art Director: Tatum Cardillo
Copywriter: Dirk Vandeman
Exec VP, Director of Creative Services: Larry Postaer
Sr. VP, Creative Director: Joe Baratelli
Sr. VP, Creative Director: David Smith
Sr. VP, Executive Producer: Gary Paticoff
Sr. VP, Group Account Director: Chuck Valentine
VP, Management Supervisor: Brett Bender
Brand Communications Manager: Cathy O’Gorman
Account Executive: Emma Giorgi
Product Information Specialist: James Carreras
Traffic Manager: Berie Barajas
VP, Director of Business Affairs: Maria Del’Homme
Broadcast Traffic: Dayz Pallera
Product Information Manager: Scott King
Broadcast Production Assistant: Joshua Herbstman

Design/Animation: Nylon Motion, inc./LA
Creative Directors: Jason Cook & Bryan Lee
Executive Producer: Joe Montalbano Senior Producer: Dan Bryant Junior Producer: Jason Kirkham
Designers: Bryan Lee, Jason Cook, Wonhee Lee, Tomás Pena 3D Technical Director: Sungwook Su 3D Animators: Sungwook Su, Kevin Kim, Jae Hyun Yoo, Hojun Oh Matte Painter: Derek Tsai Character Design: Titmouse Inc.
Traditional Character Animation: Titmouse Inc.
Compositors: Magnus Hierta, Sam Sparks
Rotoscope Artist: Edgar Diaz
Prod Assist: Danny Holcom, David Graybill Storyboard Artist: Ben Michaels

Live Action Production: Nylon Motion, inc/LA Executive Producer: Joe Montalbano
Producer: Jeremy Hammond
Production Manager: Leslie Godfrey
Production Coordinator: TeNeil Moore
DP: Joe Colangelo
Motion Control Operator: Rob Menapace
Motion Control Tech: Craig Shumard

Character Design: Titmouse Inc.
Traditional Character Animation: Titmouse Inc.
Creative Director: Chris Prynoski
Producer: Keith Fay
Director: Juno Lee
Animation Director : Dave Vandervoort
Clean-Up Supervisor: Junpei Takayama
Clean-Up: Jan Naylor, Dik Pose
Color: Sung Jin Ahn, Gabe Lee, Brian Kim

VFX/Online: RIOT/Santa Monica, CA
Inferno Artist – Andy Davis
Rotoscope Artist – Cecile F. Tecson
Rotoscope Artist – Robert Tatum
Inferno Assistant – Chris Hunsberger
VFX Producer – Dave Sellars

Popularity: 3% [?]

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With a strong live-action narrative that abstractly recalls such classic films as Rear Window, award winning design/production studio nailgun* has completed the comprehensive high def redesign of Universal Channel, the NBC Universal owned network seen by millions throughout Latin America.

The redesign, which includes network IDs, bumpers, menus, promo templates, specialized movie animation opens/interstitials and more all produced in HD, focuses on the network’s character-driven programming and its evolution from a crime channel into a general entertainment destination.

“Universal is an iconic brand that has been around for a long time, and Universal Channel is one of the top networks in Latin America, so they’ve obviously been doing some things well in terms of their branding,” says Michael Waldron, President/Creative Director at nailgun*. “While we wanted to revitalize the network’s look and feel, we didn’t want to mess with what was working.”

The Universal Channel’s current branding featured two iconic elements that had worked well for them: a silhouette image of a man running and an urban landscape. “They had some equity built up in those icons so we decided early on rather than reinvent the brand we would significantly refresh those icons to make them more modern and interesting,” Waldron said. “We delved further into Universal’s relationship with the cityscape and the mantra became ‘Universal belongs to the city and the city belongs to Universal.’ In terms of characters, the ‘running man’ is a great image because you don’t know if he is chasing someone or being chased, whether he’s a guilty man or one wrongly accused. It provides a lot of dramatic possibilities.”

The package includes of series of main IDs – short, suspenseful vignettes that unfold in the new Universal cityscape. In one a man emerges from a building carrying a briefcase only to be confronted by two police cruisers. Another depicts a man and woman in a passionate embrace, little suspecting they are being watched by a stranger through binoculars. Still another shows a women sharpening a knife while standing behind a man seated on a couch reading a newspaper. The IDs end with the POV turning and pulling back to reveal a reflective glass cityscape bathed in a warm red light, and the familiar, yet completely modernized, Universal ‘globe’ logo.

Another integral part of the package is a block of movie animations. One sequence features a strip of film winding its way through a complicated series of movie projector mechanisms that when viewed from another angle, turn out to be a spectacular cityscape.

“Since launching in 2004, Universal Channel has grown to be one of the top rated channels in Latin America,” Universal Channel Managing Director Steve Patscheck says. “Character-driven programs such as Heroes and House, as well as bold steps in the online and mobile arenas have allowed us to evolve from a crime channel into a general entertainment destination. The nailgun* team translated this into a cutting-edge look that beautifully showcases Universal Channel as a place rife with characters and drama. The new package is a perfect reflection of our blockbuster movies, award-winning series and original content, and we think it’s exactly the right time to give our audience, affiliates and advertisers something new.”

Complex Green Screen Production
For the live action Waldron directed the cast through an extensive two-day greenscreen production of the various vignettes involving cranes, dollies and motion tracking. That footage was later composited along with an extensive amount of 2D/3D elements and typography into the final spots. “For the live action we settled on a series of different personalities living in this world,” explains Waldron. “They’re every day scenes but because of the context we’ve put them in there’s a sense of danger and intrigue. Added Erik van der Wilden, director of animation + editorial, “The client’s biggest concern was having more than one discernible narrative thread to each of the stories and making sure each focused on the premise of Universal Channel as a place rife with characters and drama. These IDs will air for a long time and over time one narrative wasn’t going to keep viewers interested. We kept the spots as ambiguous as possible so they could be viewed in a variety of ways. Is the woman sharpening the knife about to chop vegetables or murder her husband? Is the guy looking through binoculars a cheated husband or a peeping tom? Those questions keep viewers intrigued and what makes the work special.”

Revamping an Iconic Logo
The nailgun* creative team also focused much of their effort on modernizing Universal Channel’s cityscape icon and the famous globe logo, using 3D animation to make them feel more tactile and personal, and metaphorically represent the many intriguing ambiguities of the modern city. “We wanted the cityscape to look truly global,” says Waldron. “We created things happening down at street level, but then pulled the camera back to reveal these dramatic horizons dominated by the Universal logo. Updating the Universal logo for this purpose proved to be kind of tricky. It’s a familiar icon, but has a very flat, 2D look, which we wanted to enhance with more dimension and detail.

Adds van der Wilden, “Our use of reflections represents the idea that you can’t always believe what you see. Sometimes you think you’re in the city, but then perspective changes and you’re somewhere else. The POV is always shifting and you’re never be certain of what you’re seeing.”

About nailgun*
With a strong belief that great art derives from making creative choices and sticking to them, veteran graphic designer Michael Waldron and editor/animator Erik van der Wilden launched motion graphics house nailgun* (www.nailgun.tv) in 2003. Since then the BDA Gold award-winning creative shop has been pushing boundaries while exceeding client goals with standout work for top advertising agencies and broadcast networks. Their clients include such companies as ABC News, HBO, HGTV, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, Publicis and McCann-Erickson NY.

Creative Credits
Client: NBC/Universal
Project: Universal Channel Redesign
Production/Design/Post: nailgun*, New York
Michael Waldron, Creative Director + Live Action Director
Erik van der Wilden, Director of Animation + Editorial
Elena Olivares, Managing Director
Music/Sound Design: Expansion Team, New York
Alex Moulton, Creative Director
April Jaffe, Executive Producer
Michael Picton, Composer
Jesse Peterson, Sound Designer

Toolkit:
Autodesk Maya
Adobe After Effects
Apple Shake, G5 workstations

Web Resources:
Click here to watch the nailgun* created IDs for Universal Channel:

http://www.nailgun.tv/client/universal/universal.html

www.nailgun.tv

www.universalchannel.tv

Popularity: 3% [?]

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Three spots for Benylin have recently started airing on UK television, Benny, Lynne and Chemist. The spots are separate but linked, with all of them featuring an anatomical mannequin holding forth on the benefits of the Benylin range. Directed by Dom & Nic, the spots were created by Richard Baynham and Ian Gabaldoni from JWT.

For the Framestore CFC team, the Benylin spots came – appropriately enough – as something of a welcome relief. Many of the usual challenges they would expect to face – creating multiple realistic creatures or people with appropriate musculature, hair and complex movement, and placing these within a variety of environments – simply didn’t apply. In each of the three spots there is a single ‘hero’ model posed within just the one location, and actually required to look somewhat stiff and artificial.

Whilst Benny was created in November 2006, the two other spots – Lynne and Chemist – were created more recently and form a neat, complementary family trilogy of spots for the product.

“Comping each of the 30 second spots took us a week or so, and rather less for the 10 second Chemist spot. On the set we used real models. We would light the background with the plastic model in situ to get the background and her looking good. We would then remove her to shoot the main hero background plate. On occasions – when the guy’s picking her up and putting her on the desk – we had a blue screen version of the model (again to scale) that we’d use.”
Pedro Sabrosa – Framestore Senior Compositing Artist for ‘Lynne’.

“We expend so much time and energy trying to get the unreal to look real – it was a real relief to be creating something that was meant to look artificial. The trick with the animation was to make her move so that at any point she still looked like a plastic model, maintaining a sort of tubular rigidity. We also had to ‘de-muscle’ her face, to reduce the affect in it and make the model look more plastic.” Paul Denhard – Technical Director Framestore 3D team for Lynne & Chemist.

“We pushed the boundaries a bit in terms of the lighting. Within Maya (which we used throughout) we relied solely on a technique called Final Gathering for the main lighting. It’s been around for a while, but has improved quite a bit lately. It gives us a more realistic look straight away, without having to put individual lights in by hand and trying to get all the shadows right.” Paul Denhard.

“How do you stop a woman with half her face peeled off from looking scary or off-putting? The trick was to make her look just plastic and shiny enough. The skin colour needed to be right too, and painting numbers on her (as you might expect to see in a mannequin like this) also made it look less ‘wrong’.” Denhard on the challenge of creating ‘Lynne’s’ distinctive physiognomy.

BENYLIN ‘BENNY’
Agency J Walter Thompson
Art Director Richard Baynham
Copywriter Ian Gabaldoni
Agency Producers Beverley Thornton, Jessica Serjeant
Production Company Outsider
Director Dom & Nic
Producer John Madsen

For Framestore CFC
Animation Lead & Rig Mike Mellor
Animators Kate Hood, Nicklas Andersson, Florent DeKa Taille
TDs Jake Mengers, Diarmid Harrison Murray, Simon French, Alex Doyle
Compositing Artist Stephane Allender
Telecine Colourist David Ludlam
Producer Sarah Hiddlestone

Click here to view’Benny’

BENYLIN ‘LYNNE’
Agency J Walter Thompson
Art Director Richard Baynham
Copywriter Ian Gabaldoni
Agency Producers Katie Keith, Jessica Serjeant
Production Company Outsider
Director Dom & Nic
Producer John Madsen

For Framestore CFC
Animation Lead Kevin Rooney
Animation Rig Mike Mellor
Animation Sylvain Marc
TDs Paul Denhard, Richard Corley
Modelling Mary Swinnerton
Compositing Artist Pedro Sabrosa
Telecine Colourist David Ludlam
Producer Sarah Hiddlestone

Click here to view ‘Lynne’

BENYLIN ‘CHEMIST’
Agency J Walter Thompson
Art Director Richard Baynham
Copywriter Ian Gabaldoni
Agency Producer Lauren Moran
Production Company Outsider
Director Dom & Nic
Producer John Madsen

For Framestore CFC
Animator Simon Rouby
Animation Rig Mike Mellor
TD Paul Denhard
Compositing Artist Pedro Sabrosa
Telecine Colourist David Ludlam
Producer Sarah Hiddlestone

Click here to view ‘Chemist’

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