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Director Johannes Gamble of superstudio recently partnered with ad agency DDB Chicago on a viral campaign for summer’s newest beer, Bud Light Lime. Created for YouTube consumption, the spots introduce Limey, Anheuser-Busch’s new Bud Light Lime mascot, who does stunts and features the tagline, “It’s amazing what a little lime can do.”

“This was one of those ever-evolving projects, which kept growing into something bigger, and blurred the lines between TV and Internet,” says Will St. Clair, DDB Chicago VP & Executive Producer. “We needed someone who had the experience and versatility to bridge these realms. Johannes not only had the right mindset, he also embraced the challenges and found solutions. He was inventive enough to work within our budget; he materially improved upon our concept and developed it into something both cool and doable.”

In “Coasters,” the life-of-the-party lime juices up a house bash, courtesy of some card-throwing magic. From whirling boomerang action to a round of coaster darts to hamburger adornment, Limey wows the crowd with a flick of his wrist. The dynamic spot ends with a grand finale: a Bud Light Lime contraption built with beer boxes, bottles and party gear, which Limey launches with an incredible coaster toss. The hand-written tagline appears on two coasters lodged into a doorframe like ninja stars.

The other two virals follow a similar premise with Limey working his smooth moves. In “Skateboard,” pool partygoers cheer on Limey who clears outdoor furniture and beer-bottle obstacle courses on a skateboard before slam-dunking a basketball. “Breakdance” finds L-boy in a B-boy battle, resurrecting old-skool moves like the windmill and, to his round-headed advantage, the headspin.

For Director Johannes Gamble, the Bud Light Lime campaign was an opportunity to show off his conceptual, creative and visual effects prowess. During the initial discussions with DDB Chicago, Gamble provided a photo of himself with a lime character he created and Photoshopped, as well as a mock-up video in which he fashioned a temporary Limey outfit from his wife’s yoga ball and wore a blue shirt, which enabled him to chroma-key the top of his body off and move his arms down. His treatment also included background information on the different formats and styles of viral videos.

“The agency wanted a small green character that could do amazing tricks,” explains Gamble. “I thought it’d be fun to take this concept literally with the character as a lime. Having been interested and living in the world of YouTube and Internet movies, I knew the playing field and how to capture the right essence of this genre. Our work had to be authentic to the YouTube audience.”

With less than two weeks to prep, superstudio worked with Mark Rappaport, Lead Designer of Creature Effects, to design a durable Limey costume based on Gamble’s yoga-ball prototype. The final piece was created from rubbery lightweight foam that was adjustable for the different talent. World-renowned skateboarder Eric Koston was cast as Limey in “Coasters” and “Skateboard” while dancer Ivan Velez played the part in “Breakdance.”

“There is a fine line between the commercial requirements and making the content natural for YouTube,” adds Gamble. “We shot the elements nicer than they needed to be on the [Panasonic] HVX 200 and worked backwards to degrade things from there.”

The main challenge for Gamble and his production team was creating three different spots and an eight-minute profile on Limey within a tight turnaround. All were shot in two days, and teaser versions of the spots were edited and finished within eight days for the client to premiere at a vendor convention. The “faux-file,” about the story behind Limey and Bud Light Lime, aired on ESPN’s SportsCenter earlier this month.

Other challenges included making on-the-fly adjustments during the shoot, costume modifications, hundreds of hours of rotoscoping and comping, and an unfortunate allergic reaction Gamble had to a nearby tree. Ring of Fire assisted on some of the last-minute finishing on the viral versions of “Skateboard” and “Breakdance.” Gamble edited the spots on Final Cut Pro, and created the ambitious visual effects in After Effects.

“This was a great collaboration with the agency,” remarks Dana Garman Jacobsen, Founder/Executive Producer of superstudio. “They were very trusting of Johannes coming from a viral mentality.”

“It was great to have complete creative freedom on our character design,” adds Nathan de la Rionda, Head of Production of superstudio. “We were able to give Limey his own personality and signature moves. This was a fun project for us because we were experimenting with and fine-tuning things as we went along.”

“The creatives at DDB were so nice and fun to work with,” concludes Gamble. “We tossed ideas back and forth, and kept building momentum around this whole campaign. Our whole process, especially the set, was buzzing with energy and excitement. There was never a dull moment.”

superstudio
superstudio was launched in 2007 by Executive Producer Dana Garman Jacobsen, an industry vet who’s worked with notable production companies Propaganda Films, RSA, Tony Kaye and Supply and Demand. The small high-end boutique provides concentrated and unparalleled hands-on support for its selective roster of directors – an enviable and much-desired luxury these days. Garman and Head of Production Nathan de la Rionda are tirelessly committed to the growth of their directors, spearheading and collaborating on all assignments, and acting as a deep resource of ideas, execution and most importantly — laughs.

Creds:

Client: Anheuser-Busch
Product: Bud Light Lime

Spot Titles / Airdates: “Coasters” May/June 2008
“Skateboard”
“Breakdance”

Ad Agency: DDB Chicago
Creative Director: Charles Rachford
Copywriter: Yvonne Chia
Art Director: Jamie Overkamp
VP, Executive Producer: Will St. Clair
Producer: Kevin James

Production Company: superstudio
Director: Johannes Gamble
DP: Ty Evans
Executive Producer: Dana Garman
Producer: Nathan de la Rionda
Where shot: Van Nuys, CA

Editorial, VFX & Postproduction Company: superstudio Editor/VFX Supervisor & Artist: Johannes Gamble

Sound Design Company: superstudio
Sound Designer: Johannes Gamble

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Artifex Studios created a photorealistic 3D elephant for Nissan.The carefree elephant hitching a ride on the back of a Nissan pickup truck was built and animated for Filmmates Productions (Mexico City) and Clemente Camara & Associates in collaboration with The Oranj Group out of New York City.

The spot opens on a beautiful field, warm sunlight and an endless winding road. The new Nissan product carries a statuesque elephant. The elephant, moved by the view with the wind in its ears and the fantastic looking vehicle it rides on, slowly lifts its hind legs and opens its arms in a human-like gesture that seems to say “I’m the King of the World”. Although a live elephant was used for parts of the commercial, the realistic movement for the last sequence was completed in full CG utilizing a realistic 3D elephant modeled after the live action animal.

The Plates: Since there was a ‘stand-in’ elephant that needed to be painted out prior to moving forward with 3D, there was a great amount of prep work completed on the plates even before animation took place. First, the plates needed to be tracked in 3D since both the camera and truck moved throughout each shot.

Camera solutions were exported to both Maya and Nuke. Maya was then used to create projection geometry, which was then exported to Nuke. In Nuke a combination of stills were painted onto the geometry and the exported camera data from the 3D tracking software was used to create a clean sequence without the stand- in elephant.

The Animation: The elephant model was achieved by creating a base mesh in Maya. ZBrush was used to create high-resolution detail such as wrinkles and folds. Existing photos were used as reference and colour maps were created by painting. With the combination of the colour and displacement map, a photoreal elephant was rendered using HDRI photography for lighting and subsurface scattering to help simulate skin. In addition, for the elephant’s close-up Maya Fur was utilized for an added touch of realism and detail. Rendering was achieved through Renderman.

Animating the elephant required a balance of realistic motion and pushing the limitations of an elephant’s actual range of motion to achieve the client’s objective, all the while maintaining a sense of believability. Artifex Studios Ltd. is located in Vancouver, BC and has been creating digital effects and 3D animation for film and television since 1997.

Artifex Studios
Artifex Studios Ltd. is located in Vancouver, BC and has been creating digital effectss and 3D animation for film and television since 1997.

www.artifexstudios.com.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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On June 3, at the 17th Annual AICP Show presented by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, award-winning Santa Monica visual effects design company a52 was honored for their visual effects artistry on last year’s Monster.com “Slots” broadcast spot from agency BBDO New York and acclaimed Gorgeous Enterprises/ Anonymous Content director Frank Budgen.

Honoring the best commercials of the previous year, the AICP Show will now go on tour to museums and cultural institutions across the U.S. and abroad.

The inclusion of Monster.com “Slots” in this year’s program – where it is honored in both the Visual Effects and Cinematography categories – marks the eleventh consecutive year that a52’s work has been honored in the prestigious event. Founded in 1997, a52’s work has now appeared in the AICP Show each year since 1998 – the first year it was eligible.

“Each year, to be able to present the best of the best in celebrating the art and technique of the American commercial, the organizers of the AICP Show take a very hard look at the U.S. commercials produced over the previous year,” said Ron Cosentino, a52’s executive producer. “The fact that a52 has been fortunate enough to have work appear in the show so consistently is a testament to a lot of people. including some of the industry’s best artists, producers, creatives and directors. There is a legacy of producing excellent work here, and we’re very proud to be carrying those standards forward.”

One of several of BBDO’s Monster.com “Your Calling is Calling” spots honored in this year’s AICP Show, “Slots” shows countless people traveling through a darkened city on rails, where they are effortlessly carried along their individual paths toward their respective workdays.

Artfully combining real-time and time-lapse cinematography captured by Budgen and his fellow director of photography John Mathieson, the sun eventually rises, and amid hundreds of track-bound travelers, one man finally appears walking along on his own. To the sounds of the song “Dream On” by The Chemical Brothers, a title card appears reading, “Find your own path.”

The spot was edited by Angus Wall of a52’s sibling editorial facility Rock Paper Scissors (RPS), which also has a long standing track record for having work featured in the AICP Show. “Slots” was one of seven commercials featured in this year’s AICP program which were cut by RPS editors.

For BBDO New York, the Monster.com “Slots” project credits include chief creative officer David Lubars, executive creative director Eric Silver, associate creative directors Richard Ardito, Grant Smith and Jerome Marucci, SVP and executive producer Jeff Beverly, and senior producer Ed Zazzera. The production companies’ executive producers were Paul Rothwell and Cassie Hulen, and the line producer was Alicia Bernard.

a52’s extensive visual effects contributions to “Slots” are courtesy of visual effects supervisor Pat Murphy, 3D supervisor Andy Hall, producer Scott Boyajan, effects artists Kirk Balden, Tim Bird, Raul Ortego, Mike Bliss, George Cuddy, Shannon Nobel, Marty Taylor, Brandon Jolley, James Pastorius and Brendan Smith, and 3D artists Max Ulichney, Kirk Shintani, Chris Janney, Dan Gutierrez, Paulo deAlmada and Eli Guerron. Executive produced for a52 by Linda Carlson, additional RPS credits include executive producer Carol Lynn Weaver and assistant editor Terence “Biff” Butler. Final audio for “Slots” was mixed by Loren Silber of Santa Monica’s Lime Studios.

About a52
Established in 1997 as a home for the very latest high-end photo-real visual effects technologies and the industry’s most innovative and talented graphic design artists, visual effects design company a52 creates award-winning imagery for the world’s most visually ambitious commercial and television projects. Having relocated to Santa Monica in 2007, the company’s work has earned AICP Show recognition for eleven consecutive years along with recent “Outstanding
Commercial” Emmy, Andy, BDA, Belding, Clio, British Design and Art Direction, International Monitor, International Automotive Advertising, London International Advertising, One Show and PROMAX awards. For more information, please call 1.310.586.0650 or visit www.a52.com .

Popularity: 4% [?]

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It had never happened before. It hasn’t happened since. When iconic golfers Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Arnold Palmer took to the links for the final round of the 1960 U.S. Open, three generations of golf greatness were represented together for the first, and perhaps only, time.

That historic grouping forms the focus of “Back Nine at Cherry Hills: The Legends of the 1960 U.S. Open,” a lovingly told documentary created by HBO Sports. Manhattan-based creative studio Favorite Color used a blend of still photographs, archival footage, and 3D artistry to create a moody, metaphorical opening title for the documentary.

“Favorite Color brought a subtle storytelling approach to this project, from color palette to content,” says HBO Sports’ Creative Director Tripp Dixon. “They were able to combine still photos, 3D, and sparse footage in a truly seamless and smart way, with tremendous attention to detail. The end result is beautiful and evocative of that era.”

The Main Title opens with a blaze of sunlight slowly diffusing to reveal a dimpled white ball on a tee. The lone figure of a very young Jack Nicklaus (then playing as an amateur) sends a drive ripping down the verdant fairway.

The scene dissolves into shots of caddies and expectant looking crowds along the fairway before revealing still images – one monochrome, one color — of Ben Hogan (then in the twilight of his career) attempting a chip shot out of a water hazard. Swooping around an ornately textured tree trunk, the camera reveals flawless follow-through of the legendary Arnold Palmer (this tournament’s eventual champion). Billed as a “Matchup for the Ages,” the scene then joins shots of the three men together on the green, before ending with a final putt and a 3D ball entering the hole. The resulting effect is both palpably dramatic and gently nostalgic.

“This is a highly significant moment in golf history,” says Lindsay Daniels, Creative Director at Favorite Color. “We needed to create a narrative piece that would capture the emotion of the tournament, as well as the look and feel of the era. After much consideration, we came up with the idea of the Title progressing through a single hole of the tournament: from tee-off to sinking the putt, with three players as the main characters, and a sense of drama building along the way. We used the game of golf as both a metaphor for life and as the foundation of our story.”

“We had a wealth of still photographs and archival footage to choose from, and it was our job to achieve the right pacing and treatment to bring this historic moment back to life,” says Daniels. “We referenced photography from that particular period to get the evocative, highly saturated look we were after. We selected shots of the players at emotional, pivotal moments, and colored them by hand before bringing them into After Effects to add more elements and perspective. It was time-consuming, but we were able to capture the feeling of the time with great subtlety.”

Somehow, the scenes manage to represent both the lush, unhurried gentility of the great game as well as the intense precision and skill of its greatest players.

“We had to come up with a way to combine the archival footage, which was of differing qualities, and these beautiful, emotional stills,” says Daniels. “HBO wanted a timeless, classic look that summed up the emotion and history. To gain a little more creative control over this amazing material, we created 3D elements to bridge the historic scenes in an artful way.”

About Favourite Color
The name Favorite Color is inspired by the nostalgia, whimsy and fascination with one’s creative opinion distilled to its most simple form. This seemingly insignificant opinion is, in fact, a form of personal branding and complex storytelling that emotionally connects with everyone.

www.favoritecolor.tv

Popularity: 7% [?]

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Rhinofx’s original 3D animated character Mr. Bluelight, the aptly named blue light bulb, continues to star in Kmart stores and television spots across the country. The charming and playful Kmart spokesman has been helping customers examine merchandise and scour stores for deals across broadcast spots and Kmart’s website.

The long line of :15 and :30 spots began airing in May 2007 and have evolved into the ongoing Blue Spotlight program, a multi-platform campaign in which the luminous icon uses print, TV, and web to highlight the stores’ best products and bargains.

rhinofx’s ability to deliver the production quality and bandwidth for these projects is a direct result of their significant growth and access to a deeper and more talented resource pool.

The Work
With new in-store sales every two weeks, the ongoing success of Mr. Bluelight as Kmart’s newest brand spokesperson, and the intricate nature of the animation, rhinofx has developed an efficient system and dedicated staff to handle the production pipeline.

Creative/Animation Director Harry Dorrington notes, “Each spot involves significant creative and production resources, including pre-vis, character sketches, behavior mapping, 3D modeling, rigging, lighting, and fully integrating the animated elements with props, live-action, and voice-over. It is a really major process and the output is a testament to the talented team we have put together to execute on the original vision.”

Mr. Bluelight is now starring on television spots, in Kmart stores nationwide, and across the web. In addition to this recent iconic brand spokesman, rhinofx has completed similar animated characters for Fruit of the Loom, Juicy Juice, Vise-Grip, and Ruby for ATI Technologies. Each project involved starting with a blank canvas and developing characters that truly connect with the different nature of each brand’s audience.

About rhinofx
Since its launch in 2000, rhinofx has created award-winning visual effects, design, and animation for commercials, VFX for feature films, episodic television, webisodic mini-series, and videogame cinematics. The company’s principals and artists have also led the industry’s exploration into the boundless potential of branded digital content. By cultivating extensive relationships with key brands, advertising agencies, and film/TV studios, rhinofx utilizes its creative directors and artists to develop and execute powerful branded entertainment to build both identity and awareness.

Project Team
Karen Bianca Bisignano – Senior Producer
Goran Ognjanovie – Senior Animator
P. Jasmine Katatihkarn – Lead Lighter
Brian DiNoto – Modeler
Chris DiFiore – Lead Composite Artist
Marc Steinberg – Editor

Popularity: 4% [?]

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In this VFX-driven :60 branding spot from Anonymous’ Andrew Douglas out of 180LA in Los Angeles, a film crew shoots rock climbers atop a treacherous snow-filled mountain when suddenly the Sony professional movie camera comes unglued from the DP’s grip, tumbling hundreds of feet below, shattering into thousands of pieces on the rocks.

With the aid of LA-based The Mill, the camera pieces reassemble into the form of various Sony products such as a laptop computer, HD camcorder and Blu-ray Disc™ player. As the electronic devices travel further down the mountain, they again shatter against trees then are put together into new Sony products. The devices eventually make their way into a user’s home and reassemble into the world’s thinnest OLED TV.

About Anonymous Content:
Anonymous Content is an industry-leading production and management firm that leverages its unrivaled reach and access to talent to create and produce innovative content across all its divisions: Film, Integrated, Commercials, Music Video, Television, and Talent.

Anonymous Content was formed in 1999 by a collaboration of business and creative minds responsible for developing some of the industry’s most respected entertainment and branded content. In launching the firm, the founders combined their unique talents, distinct vision for the future of content creation, and unmatched industry access. Since then, Anonymous has been able to extend its reach across entertainment, exercising its capacity to package talent and mine literary material from deep and powerful resources.

The Creds:
Client: Sony
Spots Title: Tumble
Air Date: May 2008

Agency: 180LA, Los Angeles
Managing Partners: Peter Cline, Michael Allen
Executive CD: William Gelner
CD(s): Tyler Hampton, Gavin Milner
Art Director: Lindsey Aquino
Copywriter: Jordan Chouteau
Senior Producer: Colleen Wellman
Prod Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Andrew Douglas
EP: Andy Traines
EP/Head of Commercials: Dave Morrison
Head of Production: Sue Ellen Clair
Production Supervisor: Jennifer Barrons
Producer: Paul Ure

Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Adam Pertofsky
EP: Vicki Tripp

Post/Effects: The Mill
CG Supervisor: Jaime O.Hara
Producer: Gabrielle Gourrier

Popularity: 4% [?]

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To usher in the new season of the popular reality series, “Bridezillas,” WE tv turned to the design & animation talent of Mr. Wonderful for a new show open and graphics package.

The show open is a stylized animation exploring how weddings can turn blushing brides into Bridezillas. It seems all is going well for the bride and her beau on their wedding day until the rain clouds move in, revealing a glitzy updated “Bridezillas” logo.

“Damien [Henderson] and his team at Mr. Wonderful did a fantastic job of bringing our creative vision to life,” says Danielle Ostroske, WE tv producer. “It was a great collaboration, and the new graphics are the perfect fit for our signature series, Bridezillas.”

For Mr. Wonderful, this was an opportunity to revamp the look for the opening of the highest rated series on WE tv, now in its 5th season. To explore the two sides of the brides featured on the show, from the sweet to the dictatorial, Mr. Wonderful created a bride that was pretty and stylish, even when throwing a tantrum, and built scenarios that would allude to the drama inherent in most weddings.

“WE tv came to us about creating a new look to the open, which would also touch on certain storylines such as interacting with future-in-laws,” explains Damien Henderson, Mr. Wonderful Executive Producer. “We wanted to rethink this completely, to give it a fresh updated look. We also wanted a cohesive narrative that illustrates what’s to come in the show.”

“The open tells the story of the bride’s battle and journey to get to the pinnacle of her day only to have storm clouds move in and zap into the show logo,” adds Beirne Lowry, Mr. Wonderful Creative Director. “We wanted the bride to come out as the hero, Lara Croft-style, battling all the pitfalls that putting on a big event can bring. Along with the cast of characters we came up with, the tanned in-laws from the sunny south, the doting florist and pastry chef, and the clueless groom, we added the iconic white doves, which serve as the bride’s little helpers and were also used as graphic motivators for the lower third graphics.”

The ambitious and design-intensive package for “Bridezillas” reaffirms Mr. Wonderful’s capabilities to act as both a conceptual agency and design company.

“WE tv let us run with a very bold and stylized geometric graphic look,” concludes Lowry. “It was nice to have that level of trust given to us by the client to re-brand one of their most popular and iconic shows. We had a great time working with the WE creative team on bringing the characters and stories to life.”

CREDITS

Client: WE tv
Producer: Danielle Ostroske

Design & Animation Company: Mr. Wonderful
Creative Director: Beirne Lowry
Executive Producer: Damien Henderson
Lead Designer/Animator: Tim Haldeen
Designer Animators: Joe Boylan, George Sepulveda
Producer: Laurie Duke

www.mrwonderful.tv

Popularity: 9% [?]

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New York-based design, animation and VFX studio, ‘rhinofx’ recently collaborated with ‘Uncle’ Director Gavin Bowden to create two :30 spots for Toyota which showcase the best-selling Camry and RAV4 with transformation techniques that take viewers both in and out of the vehicle and across CG backgrounds.

The company used a combination of live-action and CG manipulation techniques to showcase both the broad appeal and versatility of the vehicles. The Camry tours the city as a variety of people imagine themselves inside, while the RAV4 rambles through an ever-changing backdrop alternating between mountainous terrain and an urban environment.

“The biggest challenges for the series were in determining exactly how to integrate the visual elements into completely seamless transitions,” said ‘rhinofx’ CD/VFX Director Vico Sharabani. “It was like trying to figure out a puzzle, with the previs, motion control, and production requiring pretty extensive planning. For the Camry, we had to continuously integrate one person in two separate locations, synthesizing their interaction with both the interior of the car and the exterior environment. We then used CG elements to augment additional features of the city, like the 3D sculpture and the billboard, into the Camry spot. For the RAV4 spot, we did quite a bit of work on the end shots and blend of the transitions, as well as to create the realism in the mountain scenery and lake reflections.”

About rhinofx
Since its launch in 2000, ‘rhinofx’ has created award-winning visual effects, design, and animation for commercials, VFX for feature films, episodic television, webisodic mini-series, and videogame cinematics. The company’s principals and artists have also led the industry’s exploration into the boundless potential of branded digital content. By cultivating extensive relationships with key brands, advertising agencies, and film/TV studios, rhinofx utilizes its creative directors and artists to develop and execute powerful branded entertainment to build both identity and awareness.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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