cgnews

Labeled as “the most important election in recent history,” it is no surprise that time and attention are to be paid to voting. A GAP campaign that addresses individual reasons for committing this very act has been launched via the GAP website. Directed by Superfad for CAA, the spots feature such noted individuals as Norman Lear, Bill Maher, Perez Hilton and the Cool Kids, with animated line drawings that expressively illustrate their unique points of view. Superfad crafted a white limbo world that would reveal the scale of the stage and ground the talent in a tangible space.

Within this space developed very specific performances and postures for each individual. In that way, each spot would be connected to the next while allowing for personalization, both via performance and the applied animation.

“GAP and CAA sought to visually express the very personal beliefs, causes and ideas behind why people vote,” explains Superfad Director Justin Leibow. “The featured product was literally and figuratively a blank slate: A T-Shirt that engaged you to fill in the blank area with your own cause. The online campaign is a complement to the T-Shirt initiative and the live action I was asked to direct evolved out of the long lineage of amazing Gap spots. The canvas here is the signature GAP white environment surrounding the showcased public figures.”

“The design and animation, simply put, was inspired by the Sharpie,” reveals Leibow. “Every single element of our artwork would be hand drawn in order to equate these with expressions that one might make with a marker on their own t-shirt.”

Superfad forged that path by cel animating the drawings and imbuing them with all the charm and imperfections that are inherent in the DIY nature of drawing on fabric. Additionally, Superfad applied different illustration styles to each of the 10 commercials as the visual voices of a diverse group of talent.

“This campaign is focused on getting the public engaged and encouraged to vote and we took that as its most important mandate,” concludes Leibow. “Partnering with CAA and GAP is a great privilege and we took this very fun project seriously with the hope it inspires the intended result.”

CREDITS:
Gap Voting Campaign

Spot titles/Featured Talent:
Kristen Bell
Perez Hilton
John Picard
Bill Maher
Minka Kelly
Cool Kids
Norman Lear
Olivia Munn
Mark Cuban
Cameron Sinclair

Agency: CAA
Producer: Mathew Bijarchi
Creative Director: Jesse Coulter
Art Director: Ben James
Copywriter: Andrew Ault

Production/Animation: Superfad
EP: Kevin Batten
Creative Director/Director: Justin Leibow
Producer: Danielle Hazan
Designers/Animators: Justin Leibow, Adam Greene, Clarice Chin, Miles Kinghorn,

Jimmy Thompson, Dylan Spears

Editorial: Final Cut
Editor: JD Smyth
Assistant Editor: Jacob Kuehl
Executive Producer: Saima Awan

Music: Asche and Spencer
Exec Producer: Carol Dunn

Telecine: Co3
Colorist: Stephan Sonnenfeld.

Website: AKQA

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

This new Guinness commercial, featuring a truck full of magnetic Guinness, was directed by Fredrik Bond for Irish International ad agency BBDO with post production by MPC. Fridge Magnet is the first MPC project to take advantage of the MPC international network using studios in the US and UK; utilising the high bandwidth network between MPC LA and MPC London.

The ad consists of 11 major CG shots, on which the LA team started working the day after their opening, when the plates for 3D tracking and roto started to arrive. These were seamlessly integrated into the extended MPC system in LA. Prior to this, fridges had been ‘cast’ and prep work in terms of building models during shooting and editing had been carried out in London. Once the cut was locked, the team in LA began lighting and finalising the animation.

The main challenge was tracking the very fast whip pans and zooms, which were used to create the crowd, action feel. The networked locations allowed a consistently clear, open and transparent approval process between the Director in LA with the team and the Agency based in London.

Over 700 fridges were animated for the end shot. The initial approach was to hand animate each nuance of each fridge impacting the truck, however, during production; a dynamic solution was developed to speed this up.

This new strategy involved running dynamic simulations in RealFlow and writing custom scripts to transfer this animation to a host of different fridge models back in Maya, where all the shots were created. Photoshop was used for texturing and tracking was done with Boujou and PFTrack.

The 2D team removed wires that were suspending the real fridges. Atmospheric smoke was added and close up head replacement was done. Crowds were duplicated and the city underwent clean up. The main challenge was compositing in the 3D elements to match marks on the ground, smoke, debris and other atmospheric elements.

The master grade was added in London by Director of Telecine, Jean-Clement Soret.

‘Fridge Magnet,’ is the first example of MPC using their bases in LA and London to make use of their pipeline of global resources to get the job done and enabling the team to work 24/7 giving a timely, creative and convenient workflow for Clients. The spot is on air from October 9th in Ireland.

Credits:
Director: Fredrik Bond
Creative Director: Mal Stevenson
Art Director: Pat Hamill
Deputy CD / Copywriter: Mark Nutley
Account Director: Tanya English
DOP: Crille Forsberg
Editor: Tim Thornton-Allen @ Marshall Street
Agency: Irish International BBDO
Agency Producer: Noel Byrne and Onagh Carolan
Production Company: Sonny London
Production Company Producer: Ran Holst

Post Production Company: MPC
Post Production Producer: Andrew Bell (LA) and Scott Griffin (London)
VFX Supervisors: Duncan McWilliam and Franck Lambertz
VFX Team LA: 2D: Aaron Kupferman, Franck Lambertz, Dan Sanders
3D: Chris Clyne, Wayne Hollingsworth, Nick Losq, Duncan McWilliam, Ian Wilson
VFX Team London: 2D: Stirling Archibald, Olivier Jezequel, Matthew Unwin
3D: Tim Civil, Lewis Guarniere, Tobias Meier, Dean Robinson
Telecine: Jean-Clement Soret

Popularity: 5% [?]

View Slideshow

The Mill and MCBD have created a new historical commercial for Hovis; directed by the award-winning director Ringan Ledwidge. The commercial which celebrates more than a century of historical events aired for the first time during a Coronation Street ad break in September 2008. As it travels through time following bakers in the 1890’s, the 1953 Coronation, the 1984 miners’ strike and ending with the millennium firework display in 2000.

Mill Lead Flame, Andrew Wood (Barnes) said: “This was a hugely enjoyable project to work on and we are really pleased with the finished film. The brief was to make it feel like no VFX had been used. From simple shots like removing yellow lines, PVC windows and satellite dishes through to removing whole modern buildings, adding to the numbers of the striking miners and suffragettes, through to adding Concorde footage, creating a CG spitfire to adding a colliery”.

He added: “The main VFX work was re-creating the Millennium Eve’s firework display.”

Mill colourist Mick Vincent who graded Hovis in the Baselight: “The grade for Hovis was all about keeping the look without being over worked. I had to make sure everything matched and progressed in time”.

The Mill is proud to have completed this epic commercial for the country’s most famous bakers who have been an integral part of British life for over 120 years.

CREDITS:

Product: Hovis
Title: Go on Lad
Agency: MCBD
Creative Director: Danny Brooke-Taylor
Creatives: Danny Hunt & Gavin Torrance
Producer: Lorraine Geoghegan
Production Company: Rattling Stick
Director: Ringan Ledwidge
DOP: Alwin Kuchler
Producer: Sally Humphries
Editing Company: Work
Editor: Richard Orrick
Post Production: The Mill
Producer: Gemma Smith
Telecine: Mick Vincent
Lead Flame: Barnsley
Flame: Gary Driver
3D: James Sindle

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

Stephen Fry has always loved America; in fact he came very close to being born there. Now his fascination for the country and its people has seen him embark on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation.

Fry’s account of his adventures is told in Stephen Fry in America, a new six-part series produced by West Park Pictures for the BBC. Framestore’s design team created both the digital title sequence and the hand painted travel maps that are used throughout the series.

JP Davidson, director and producer of the series, whose credits include the Michael Palin journeys among many others, initially met with Framestore Designer, Sharon Lock in May of 2008. The show had been shot and the editing process had begun. “The brief to Sharon was to create a series of about 30 maps in a distinctive style that did not resemble current affairs or Google maps,” says Davidson, “And which would float elegantly over the travelling backdrops. I was keen to have a simple hand-painted watercolour of the USA as the base which could then be used for each section and Sharon was extremely skilful at creating both a visually compelling map and one that was easy to manipulate for all the sections.

The maps appear throughout the series, knitting together the stages of Fry’s journey in time-honoured fashion. They were created by Lock using a strictly non-digital starting point. “My college training was in conventional illustration,” she says, “So when they made it clear that they wanted a distinctly ‘handmade’ (not too ‘computery’) look to the map elements, I rather impulsively offered to paint America. It was bigger than I thought”.

Using watercolours, Lock spent over a week creating the background maps, which contained essential geographical features such as mountains, lakes and so on, to which she subsequently added digital features such as towns and routes using Photoshop and After Effects.

The starting point for the titles was the fridge magnet collection that Stephen Fry had amassed as he journeyed across the US, each in the shape of the individual States. Among the rushes was some footage of Fry laying all the magnets out on the bonnet of his taxi, fitting them together jigsaw-wise. That seemed to be a perfect image to encapsulate the series, so it was that towards which Designer Anthony Gibbs started working.

Gibbs worked in Maya to create a set of digital fridge magnets which flip and flutter through the air as if whirling in a Kansas cyclone. Landing and sorting themselves into the familiar 50 States, the tiles were choreographed by Gibbs to work effectively with the title music, whilst retaining their magnetic characteristics.

“The Framestore team fully realised the germs of our ideas without fuss and better than we imagined they would be.”
JP Davidson, Director

“It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.”
Steven Wright

CREDITS:
Production Company: West Park Pictures
Series Producer & Director: John Paul Davidson
Producer & Director: Michael Waldman
Written & Presented by: Stephen Fry

FOR FRAMESTORE:
Title Design: Anthony Gibbs
Map Sequences: Sharon Lock
Producer: Simon Whalley

Popularity: 19% [?]

View Slideshow

When it comes to the food chain, you just never know what’s going to come out on top, or end up inside. At least, that’s the way things go down in the collective imagination of Buck. In a shiny new station ID for the United Kingdom’s popular Channel 5, the creative minds and 3D talents at the bi-coastal design-driven studio helped agency DixonBaxi create a rapid series of evolutionary ingestions that begin with a bright orange “Dumbo Squid” and end in a bright red armchair.

DixonBaxi founder Aporva Baxi commented, “The experience of working with Buck on Five was very creative and highly collaborative. The process was seamless and everything they did was to an exceptionally high standard, taking our high expectations and consistently managing to exceed them. “

“DixonBaxi was rebranding Channel 5, and they had an idea for what they called ‘creative bursts’,” says Ryan Honey, Creative Director at Buck. “They wanted 10 to 15 second, weird, unexpected stories to grab viewers’ attention between content, and remind them what channel they are watching. We threw this open to our entire team and gave them a chance to be really creative. We have incredible talent at Buck, and we wanted to leverage everybody’s skills and come up with something unique and fresh. Out of the 14 concepts we submitted, ‘Food Chain’ was the most abstract.”

Opening with an oddly cute little Dumbo squid swishing around in sunlit water, and next to a Channel 5 logo, the ‘Food Chain’ camera suddenly widens to reveal a yellow fish with green fins and long sharp teeth. No sooner has the yellow fish inhaled the Dumbo squid than he himself is sucked up in the vertical journey of a bigger fish before it breaks the surface with a splash. Before he can enjoy his meal, however, the fish lands on the beached pink tongue of a four footed toaster, which is quickly entrapped within the plaid and buttoned tongue of a hungry armchair, which is soon chewing with evident satisfaction.

“We pride ourselves on attention to detail,” says Honey. “While this was a fun and cute spot, we also wanted to give it a highly polished surreal look with a little edge. This was really driven by our 3d team who used there photorealism skills to come up with a almost unsettling look for our characters.”

And these characters are all Buck. Although Honey and his team referenced all manner of ocean life for inspiration, the only fish that is ‘real’ is the Dumbo squid which, to be honest, looks kind of like a cartoon even in real life. Associate Creative Director Jeremy Sahlman opted for a hybrid ‘claymation’ style that would add a whimsical feel without making the spot feel like a cartoon. The texture and lighting team then went about creating the surreal scenario and surrealistic look. Compositor Jon Gorman added light rays, plankton, and tiny bits of water distortion to further distinguish the scene.

“Everybody enjoyed the little details,” says Honey. “The blobby, reflective water; the squirming feet on the toaster; the precise reflection of the extending tongue in the toaster before it’s devoured; we had a lot of fun making it. Everybody got a chance to show their skills.”

ABOUT BUCK
Specializing in design-driven creative, Buck’s directors and artists use animation, visual effects and live action to collaborate with clients, from concept to delivery, producing work that is visceral, innovative, and diverse. From offices in New York and Los Angeles, Buck works with a broad range of clients in the advertising, broadcast, retail and entertainment industries.

“Food Chain” Credits:

BUCK
Creative Director: Ryan Honey
Executive Producer: Maurie Enochson
Senior Producer: Nick Terzich
Associate Creative Director: Jeremy Sahlman VFX Supervisor: Doug Wilkinson Art Director: Chris Lee 3D Animation: Matt Everton 3D Artists: John Niehuss, Thomas Madreiter, Randa Mohtady, Csaba Letay, Michael Colarik, Kyle Raffile, Ivan Sokol
Compositor: Jon Gorman
Audio: Cypher Audio
Software: Maya, After Effects

DIXONBAXI
Creative Director: Simon Dixon
Creative Director: Aporva Baxi
Executive Producer: Gareth Evans

RELATED LINKS:

www.buck.tv
www.dixonbaxi.com
www.five.tv

Popularity: 6% [?]

View Slideshow

Nathan McGuinness of Kommitted Films directs two innovative :30 spots for Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 Hyper -V™ server with lead VFX by Asylum’s Tim Davies. The spots demonstrate how Windows Server 2008 Hyper -V™ provides the most robust platform for server consolidation, enabling IT professionals to handle the most demanding and resource-intensive workloads.

The Windows Server 2008 Robot, IT 24-7, is back as the icon in this second phase of the Server Unleashed campaign, developed by McCann Worldgroup San Francisco. Fitted with a Hyper-V energy drink that gives him the energy to rope, wrangle, and consolidate servers, the robot continues to embody innovation, strength, and unstoppable reliability, with a fresh chrome look that makes him sleeker than ever. The campaign, first introduced in February, includes a website, which has been updated to feature Hyper-V; along with :30 and :15 second streaming spots that will run online; print; and flash banners.

Imitator opens on a disheveled IT man carrying a mess of papers and a laptop. He approaches the relaxed IT Professional, owner of the Windows Server 2008 robot. Manic-eyed and wildly jittery, the man drinks a Hyper -V before collapsing from a burst of overwhelming energy. The voiceover reminds us that Hyper -V is only for servers and to “virtualize responsibly” by letting the servers do the dirty work.

Rodeo dips into the energy drink craze. As the spot opens, a robot – the Windows Server 2008, emblazoned with IT 24-7, performs a forward handspring as if to impress his expecting owner. After being told his past efforts were not sufficient, he is ordered to “consolidate, virtualize, and simplify” several servers. The robot downs a can of his Hyper -V Pure Consolidated Energy, then proceeds to lasso every server into one virtual machine.

“It was a welcome challenge to work on this dialogue intensive spot” said Mr. McGuiness. “Working with the green screen was a small hurdle as we had to incorporate the robot’s active presence, but I think we were able to up the level of previous year’s campaigns by integrating the robot using a live actor with mocap techniques. I opted for two cameras in order to pick up all of the action and still follow the dialogue within the short amount of time. Everything in these spots was mapped out carefully in our pre-vis and pre-pro process and the agency and client was great every step of the way.”

About Kommitted:
Production company KOMMITTED Films was founded in 2005 by Director Nathan McGuinness, the Academy Award and Bafta nominated Co-Founder/Creative Director of the VFX company, Asylum. Shortly after, in 2006, veteran Executive Producer Marc Siegel was brought on to expand the directorial roster, feature film slate, and music video presence. Over a short time period, KOMMITTED Films has numerous recent high-profile spots for Target (peterson milla hooks/MN), Nintendo (Leo Burnett/Chicago) and Blackberry (RIM) (Arc Worldwide/Chicago).

About McCann Worldgroup San Francisco:
McCann Worldgroup San Francisco creates connections and conversations with customers and prospects designed to actively advance the business of its clients and their brands. A fully integrated marketing services organization, McCann Worldgroup San Francisco is a digital center of excellence, with McCann Worldgroup’s largest CRM practice, highest creative rating and global reach. Clients include Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Cathay Pacific, HP, Microsoft, Nortel, and Xbox, among others. In the past year, McCann Worldgroup San Francisco also launched T.A.G. SF. McCann Worldgroup is part of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG).

CREDITS:
Windows Server® with Hyper -V™
“Hyper-V Energy Drink” Integrated Campaign Credits

Client: Microsoft
Spot Title: Rodeo :30 & Imitator :30
Air Date: October 6, 2008
GM, Advertising and Customer Engagement Team: Gayle Troberman
Business Group Director: Bob Visse
Advertising Director: Alicia Anderson
Advertising Manager: Barbara Williams

Prod Company: Kommitted Films
Director: Nathan McGuinness
EP: Marc Siegel
Producer: Jodi Fisher

Post/Effects: Asylum
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Cassandra Khavari
Compositing Supervisor: Tim Davies
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
Production Coordinator: Emily Hoovler
CG Supervisor: Piotr Karwas
On-Set Supervisor: Sean Deaveraux
Inferno: Tim Davies
Modeler(s): Chad Fehmie, Greg Stuhl
Animator(s): Craig Van Dyke, Mike Warner & Steward Burris

Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Katz
Assistant Editor: Sean Lagrange
Executive Producer: Jerry Sukys

Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld

Agency: McCann Worldgroup San Francisco
Executive Creative Director(s): Rob Bagot, John McNeil
Associate Creative Director(s): John Reid, Doug Green, Michael Furlong
Copywriter: Doug Green
Art Director(s): John Reid, Michael Furlong
Digital Creative Director: John Reid
Broadcast Producer: Ben Latimer
Interactive Producer(s): Jose Rivera, Monica Velasquez
Director of Print Production: Jeffrey Leach
Print Producer(s): Kathie Rantz, Scott Peyton
Art Producer: Evelyn Chan
VP, Technology: Matthew Fleishman
Interactive Developer(s): Todd Spatafore, Jonathan Rose, Dan Magsino
Group Account Director: Rob Garnett
Management Supervisor: Melissa Orr
Account Supervisor: Clifford Stevens

www.serverunleashed.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

The Mill, BBDO and Traktor teamed up to create “Dragon” and “Discus” GE spots which were debuted during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic GAmes. In the impressive spot titled “Dragon” the team first began with referencing Chinese dragons in order to develop the most authentic and striking 3D design.

“The Asian dragons that we are used to seeing are often represented as drawings, on 2D planes, and implementing this as a 3D realistic creature proved to be a challenge,” shares Yann Mabille who led the 3D team. He adds, “We spent a good amount of time creating the scales and finding a nice mix of reptilian patterns that could read as a Chinese dragon while being realistic.”

Zbrush, software that allows an artist to sculpt details by painting details on a surface in real-time, was used to create the intense details, especially in the face. While a muscle system was created for the body and the face using Maya muscles.

According to Mabille, “this system allowed us to have realistic muscle structure and behavior under the surface of the body. It really adds another layer of realism to the 3D character as it allows the skin to slide on top of muscle volumes.”

Maya nCloth was also used to simulate the beard animation, as well as other flexible details on the dragon like the whiskers, the tail and the thin skin between the spikes on the back. The entire project was animated in Maya, but rendered in XSI.

VFX Supervisor Alex Lovejoy, who led the 2D/Flame team, attended the shoot. While on location in a practical cave, a flamethrower was shot in the environment in order to receive the most authentic looking flames, as well as natural glows and flickers which were captured on the floor of the cave while shooting the action.

Once the flamethrower was removed from the live action plate, the flames were composited into the position of the CG dragon’s action. In addition, a dragon’s head on a 14 foot pool was used for proper eye line and framing while shooting. Twigs, dust and grass were also shot in the cave while being thrown up with a large fork. Lovejoy later added these elements into the scene where the dragon eats from the pile, further embedding and integrating him with the action. Practical pipes were shot for the foreground, though background distance required a CG pipe extension. Steam elements were also later added in Flame.

Like “Dragon,” “Discus” was an incredible undertaking within the given time frame. It was as a consequence of the team’s size, and pure talent, that The Mill could accomplish the task at hand.

Following the main two day shoot, a third day was spent shooting background plates on both 35mm and digital stills. With Andrew Proctor leading the 3D team, they first built CG hillsides and buildings in the background which established the environment and geography in the opening wide shot. The designs were later finessed using matte painting techniques.

Dan Williams, who led the 2D team shares, “we used the master wide shot as a reference to create the backgrounds of all the following scenes.” In addition to setting the look, the 3D team also animated the discus flying and populated almost every background scene with digital people using Massive. In order to achieve the populated crowd in the mid-foregrounds, the 2D team tiled together multiple live action plates of the extras that were shot in various areas of one static shot.

An impressive 13 foot Parthenon model was created by Weta in New Zealand.The facade columns collapse practically while the rest of the building destruction was meticulously created in CG by The Mill. The advantage of shooting the miniature is that what is captured on film is exactly what is happening! Dust and debris are created naturally and bits break away from the columns and fall to the ground realistically. In Flame, Williams and his team seamlessly composited the multiple layers together and added in layers of atmosphere to give the scenes additional depth.

About The Mill
The Mill is a world-leading visual effects company with bases in London, New York and Los Angeles. In 2007, industry magazine ‘Shots’ named The Mill ‘the most-awarded VFX company in the world’ and in March 2008 The Mill was awarded the BTAA (British Television Advertising Awards) Fellowship award for ‘outstanding contribution to the production of commercials’. The Mill has built relationships with the industry’s finest directors including Chris Cunningham, Frank Budgen, Fredrik Bond, Ringan Ledwidge and Michel Gondry.

Credits:

Product: GE
Titles: Discus and Dragon
Agency: BBDO NY
Executive Creative Directo EVP: Don Schenider
Art Director: Ted Shaine
Copywriter: Tom Darbyshire
Director of TV Production EVP: Regina Ebel
Producer: Filmena Lovecchio
Assistant Producer: Regina Iannuzzi
Director: Traktor
Producer: Rani Melendez
Related Links:
www.themill.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

View Slideshow

Mother New York recently called upon Riot to complete VFX for a series of hilarious spots promoting the airing of The Star Wars films on Spike TV. The spots feature legendary Star Wars characters consorting with every-day men on planet Earth. Each spot ends with comical twists on Jedi proverbs before concluding with “there is much to be learned.”

The first spot entitled “Golf” features the infamous Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader taking a swing at the links. A friendly wager on a putt goes awry after Darth uses a little Jedi mind trick to steer the ball into the hole. One golfer shouts, refusing to pay-up after realizing he’s been outwitted by the Dark Side. Finding the accusation intolerable, Darth puts the man in a Sith stranglehold. Another golfer comes flailing to the rescue with a golf club, but recoils when Darth pulls out the ominous Lightsaber. The spot ends with some comical Jedi wisdom: “Competition can bring out a guy’s dark side.”

The second spot pairs an Ewok with man’s best friend. Set in a park, an unsuspecting twenty-something is reading the newspaper on a park bench when a tennis ball rolls by his feet; chasing after the ball is a cuddly Ewok! The man picks up the tennis ball and says to the Ewok, “Hey little puppy.” Unknowingly patronizing the furry warrior he asks, “Want your ball?” The Ewok swipes and jumps for the ball, which only encourages the man to juke the Ewok and play keep-away before tossing it into the woods. Finally, the exasperated Ewok pulls out its slingshot and lands a rock right between the man’s eyes. The spot ends with a little Jedi wisdom: “Never assume cute means harmless.”

About RIOT:
RIOT is a creative studio with unparalleled resources – virtually unmatched both creatively and technologically. The RIOT team dedicates itself to attentive creative collaboration, approaching each project holistically, drawing upon a deep knowledge of visual effects, color correction and live action experience.

Recent feature film credits for RIOT include: Time Traveler’s Wife, The Spirit and Jumper, and currently finishing 17. Commercial campaigns and music videos recently completed at RIOT include spots for Target, MGM Grand, Burger King, Spike TV and Nike.

CREDITS:
Mother New York:
Creative Director: Linus Karlsson
Creative Director: Paul Malmstrom
Mother: Renee Rauchut
Producer: Michael Aaron
Copywriter: Greg Hunter
Copywriter: Allon Tatarka
Art Director: Mat Driscoll
Art Director: Rob Baird

H.S.I. Productions:
Director: Ryan Ebner
Executive Producer: Michael McQuhae
Producer: Alison Foster
Director of Photography: Stöps Langensteiner

Riot/New York:
Executive Producer: Brent Holt
Executive Producer: D. Todd Davidovich
Producer: Peter Stanik
On Set VFX Supervisor: Cris Blyth
Lead VFX Artist: Tom McCullough
VFX artist: Matt Reilly
Junior VFX Artist: Chris Hunt
Junior VFX Artist: Steve Morris
Junior VFX Artist: Chris Wiseman
CG Supervisor: Christopher “Pink” Bonnstetter

Cosmo Street:
Amy Febinger Producer
Jason McDonald Editor
Aaron Langley Editor

Company 3, New York:
Colorist: Tim Masick
Producer: Tara Dowd

Sound Lounge:
Audio Mixer: Jodi Levine
Audio Mixer: Pat Christensen
Sound Designer: Marshall Grupp

Popularity: 7% [?]

View Slideshow

DUCK have completed an animation project for new Cox Communications television advertising featuring the company’s new mascots, nicknamed “the digis.” In the commercial, “the digis” are birthed in multitudes from high-tech pods in a massive hanger at an unknown region and then pile out of the hanger to greet the world. The end of the spot proclaims, “Get ready, your world is about to get a little bit better.”

The teaser announcement comes courtesy of the creative minds at Doner, Cox’s advertising agency of record, who selected Lane & Jan (Lane Nakamura and Jan Chen) of Los Angeles-based creative studio, DUCK. The inaugural effort, POD is the first of a four spot advertising campaign which launched May 19th.

The new characters introduced by Cox and Doner represent the brand promise of being a “friend in the digital age.” These characters help demonstrate how customers can get more out of what they’re passionate about through Cox’s Digital Cable, High Speed Internet and Digital Telephone service. DUCK’s Lane & Jan were involved in bringing these new characters to life, and the job involved unusual circumstances for the designers. “Typically, an agency approaches us after they have decided on a design and it then becomes our job to animate them,” remarked Nakamura. “This time around, Doner came to us with an initial concept idea of what they wanted the character to look like and from there Jan and I had the chance to play with that idea and help influence the final design of this really great character.” The spots were later modeled and animated by Lane & Jan using Autodesk Maya and then Adobe AfterEffects and Apple’s Shake.

“Lane and Jan, as always, produced incredible work!” commented DUCK’s EP Mark Medernach. “Not only are they involved in the creation of an outstanding series of spots for Cox, but they have also helped to introduce the world to these sleek new characters. The umbrae of the space pods really contrast the slick white, futuristic outfits of the characters. The whole aesthetic of the spot conveys this sense that Cox is ultra-modern and forward-thinking. The whole thing is very sci-fi, but at the same time, we’re trying to tell the story that Cox brings future technologies to consumers today.”

The campaign itself is significant for Cox who is the leading bundler of video and broadband telecommunications in its markets. Cox was the first company to begin offering a competitive choice for telephone service, along with high-speed Internet and digital cable to consumers. Whereas initial marketing challenges were to educate customers on why they needed services like broadband, high definition service, On DEMAND and many others bundle elements, today’s consumers are more savvy and Cox is endeavoring to demonstrate how consumers can get the most out of their services. Cox distinguishes itself from its competition by providing reliable services supported by highly-capable and friendly customer service.

The Creds
Client: Cox Communications
Spot Title(s): POD, Birth, Coffee Shop

Agency: Doner
CD/Art Director: Steve Osterman, John Garlock
CD/Writer: John Grammatico
CCO: Rob Strasberg
Integrated Producer: Paul Renusch

Prod Co: DUCK
Executive Producer: Mark Medernach
Producer: Dan Ridgers
Directors: Lane Nakamura and Jan Chen
Animators: Dony Permedi, Eric Molina, Dave Vander Pol
Modeling/Textures: Alex O’ Donnell, Steven Hensley, Dave Vander Pol
Previs: Dony Permedi, Dave Vander Pol, Joshua Delaney
Lighting/Rendering TD: Huyen Dang, Jens Lindgren
Effects: Dave Vander Pol, Joe Kim
Compositing: Huyen Dang, Jens Lindgren, Daniel Erwin
Rigging: Terry Fall
Matte Painting: Christian Krugler
Editor: Melissa Timme

About Lane Nakamura
With over fourteen years of production experience, Nakamura brings a breadth of knowledge and creativity to DUCK. A UCLA School of Arts graduate, he has been integral in DUCK’s transformation from a traditional animation house into a full-service production studio. Over the years he has directed spots for M&M’s, Imitrex, and Walmart, to name a few. In addition, he has directed several shorts including The Snowman, which won various awards at numerous festivals. He is also the creator of Kozo, the dancing purple hippo which became a worldwide sensation and has been viewed by millions in over 69 countries.

About Jan Chen
A yearbook passage from Chen’s kindergarten teacher states, “Draw! And keep on drawing. One day you will soar and the sky will be your canvas!” Chen remembered her words of encouragement and by age 12 started formal academic art education for the next six summers. He continued to study art and form, and in 1998 earned a BFA and a MA in Art and Animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Some of Chen’s work has won him several international awards and has also been permanently collected by schools, universities and private individuals. In addition to traditional art, Chen also creates and produces work using computer-generated graphics.

About DUCK
Los Angeles-based DUCK, formerly Duck Soup Studios, is a continually evolving creative studio producing commercials, music videos, short films and web content. DUCK offers a wide range of services, including live action and integration, character design, film title design, 2D and 3D animation, digital compositing, digital/traditional ink & paint. In recent years, the studio has expanded, adding an original content division that works with writers and animators on unique ideas for film and TV.

About Cox Communications:
Cox Communications is a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with more than 6 million total residential and commercial customers. Cox offers both analog cable television under the Cox Cable brand as well as advanced digital video service under the Cox Digital Cable brand. Cox provides an array of other communications and entertainment services, including local and long distance telephone under the Cox Digital Telephone brand; and high speed Internet access under the Cox High Speed Internet brand; and commercial voice and data services via Cox Business Services. In addition, Cox Business Services provides communications solutions for commercial customers, providing high-speed Internet, voice and long-distance services, as well as data and video transport services for small to large-sized businesses. Cox Media offers national and local cable advertising in traditional spot and new media formats, along with promotional opportunities and production services. Cox is an investor in programming networks including Discovery Channel.

Popularity: 6% [?]

View Slideshow

For the second year in a row, NY-based Conceptual Design, Animation and VFX studio SUSPECT via SelectNY brings us sexy CG for Christina Aguilera’s signature fragrance, Inspire. In this :30 spot directed by famed fashion photographer David LaChapelle with creative direction and Flame work from SUSPECT’s Tim Crean, the true essence of Christina is captured through a theatrical, dreamlike expose. From the dark corners of an early Hollywood, Gothamesque-style set appears the flawless blonde beauty dressed in a glamorous pink gown.

A mystical CG bubble quickly captures her attention, inspiring her to gently reach out and poke at it. As the bubble bursts, it multiplies into several smaller incarnations. The once coy, charming music crescendos to an upbeat bravado. Christina reaches her palm to the sky to meet one of the rogue bubbles which then morphs into her new signature fragrance bottle.

SUSPECT’s CD/Lead Flame Artist Tim Crean comments on the effort, “SelectNY entrusted us with conveying Christina’s brand image for the second year in a row which is a great feeling. We started with mood boards from David (LaChappelle) and began the intensive testing phase. He’s a pretty free-form director which is often challenging from the VFX standpoint, but he followed the board pretty closely on this one and shot a lot in camera to get an authentic theatrical vibe. LaChapelle’s team built amazing sets and incorporated cool props to which we added our CG touches to extend their size and scope.”

SUSPECT’S VFX Supervisor Eric Swenson, was tasked with the challenge of having Christina reacting to the realistic reflections, set extensions, and various props on the shoot day. In order to keep LaChappelle’s vision realistic and consistent, SUSPECT additionally changed some of the framing for specific shots. SUSPECT’s Executive Producer Rob Appelblatt notes, “With a celebrity such as Christina, you have to be super buttoned up and have a tight knit group of producers and artists to execute this level of work within the confines of a celebrity’s schedule. We knew we’d only have her for one day, and there wouldn’t be any reshooting. Making sure our work was done in the pre-pro phase was critical. By recently expanding to an additional floor, and steadily adding 3D artists for the division, we’re able to move forward with our goal of working on these types of high-profile design/animation projects.”

From SelectNY Producer Jennifer Johnson:Working with SUSPECT has been a great experience. Just like the last Christina spot they finished for us, SUSPECT understands the importance of creating visually interesting and gorgeous imagery that celebrities are used to. Their creative input enhanced both SelectNY and David LaChapelle’s vision.

About SUSPECT
NY-based Conceptual Design, Animation and VFX studio, SUSPECT was co-founded in 2003 by CD/VFX Artist Tim Crean and Executive Producer Rob Appelblatt. The duo have created an environment that reflects both their personal style and creative sensibilities. Never limiting themselves to traditional solutions or boundaries, the team consistently looks at creative solutions for every project. SUSPECT has recently worked on major campaigns for Visa, Burger King, Footlocker, Reebok, FedEx, MTV, Revlon, Verizon, Motorola, Miller Lite, and Samsung.

CREDITS
Client: Procter & Gamble International
Spot Title: “Christina Aguilera Signature Fragrance”
Air Date: September 2008

Agency: SelectNY
President/WW Creative Director: Olivier Van Doorne
Copywriter: Charley Cordle
EP: Maria Soares
Producer: Jennifer Johnson

Prod Company: HSI Productions
Director: David LaChapelle
Director of Photography: Crash
EP: Rebecca Skinner
Producer: Eric Katigbak

Post/Effects: SUSPECT
CD/Lead Flame Artist: Tim Crean
VFX Supervisor: Eric Swenson
Flame Artist(s): Jason Cunningham, Joe Vitale, Ben Looram, Steve Koenig, David Elkins
3d Animation: Steve Burger, David Bernkopf, Andrew Cohen
EP: Robert Appelblatt
Producer(s): Tsiliana Jolson, Stefanie Bassett
Editorial: Consulate
Editor: Holle Singer
Producer: Alan Lopez

Post Production: The Mill
Colorist: Fergus McCall

Sound: Creative Bubble
Engineer: Mike Barrett

Music: Cultra, Inc
Composer(s): David Weisner, Matthias Weber

Popularity: 5% [?]

View Slideshow