Prime Focus, one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, is proud to announce the launch of View-D, a proprietary 2D-to-3D conversion process that allows filmmakers to efficiently create stereoscopic 3D movies from source material shot on virtually any medium. View-D will be introduced at international launch events in Mumbai, London and Los Angeles to unveil the Prime Focus global rebrand, in which Post Logic and Frantic Films VFX will be brought together under the Prime Focus name.
“3D moviemaking has proven to be more than a passing trend — it’s rejuvenating international box offices and giving filmmakers a new storytelling technique that enriches the movie-going experience,” said Michael Fink, CEO, Prime Focus VFX. “Prime Focus is a visual effects facility, so we’ve been calculating 3D space from 2D images for years, and developed the technology behind View-D after having worked on several stereo 3D shows. With View-D, we’re offering the industry an exciting new production method to convert both library titles and new releases to terrific stereoscopic quality in considerably less time than other methods.”
View-D was developed under the guidance of Chris Bond, President and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor of Prime Focus VFX. “We’re very excited to be offering View-D to the industry,” stated Bond. “With View-D, it’s about giving filmmakers the gift of time, because our approach allows the possibility of interactive creative sessions with our stereographers, similar to a DI session. Filmmakers can also now shoot a movie with a single camera, on film, without having to be locked into digital cameras and potentially complicated stereoscopic camera rigs. View-D critically shortens the length of time of conversion, such that conversions can now be fit into the postproduction schedule.”
About Prime Focus
Prime Focus is a global Visual Entertainment Services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, commercials, gaming, internet and media industries.
The group offers a genuine end-to-end solution from pre-production to final delivery – including previsualisation, equipment hire, visual effects, video and audio post-production, digital intermediate, digital asset management and distribution.
Prime Focus employs more than 1200 people with state-of-the-art facilities throughout the key markets of North America, the UK and India. Using its ‘worldsourcing’ business model, Prime Focus provides a network that combines global cost advantages, resources and talent pool with strong relationships and a deep understanding of the local markets.
Premier VFX and design company Asylum has collaborated with @radical.media director Derin Seale and advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt for a potent and sobering new spot for the Ad Council that highlights the importance of being prepared when disaster strikes.
In World Upside Down Asylum Lead VFX/Inferno Artist Rob Trent guides his team through a world literally turned on its head by the coming of a natural disaster. To create this chaotic world, Asylum tapped into Flame, Shake, Silhouette, Maya and Syntheses software to bring together a collage of flying props propelled by wire rigging, shot falling on greenscreen, or, in the case of the largest objects, tastefully animated and rendered in CG.
Due to the complexity of mingling live actors with dangerous falling objects, multiple takes were required, and the final :60 is a seamless collage of six core passes overlapping one another, often retimed and warped together to sync the correct action.
“Putting together a spot with so many moving parts, especially under tight time constraints, is always challenging, but we have worked with both Cramer-Krasselt and @radical before, and both are talented partners,” noted Trent.
“Derin’s (Seale) vision and production crew really knew how to get the actors moving correctly on the wires on shoot day, and everything from the choreographed wire-lift of mom and dad, to the clothing and hair blowing in the wind of massive fans, to the set lighting was beautifully done, perfectly capturing the drama that such a spot requires. The editors at Whitehouse and a final mix from Eleven Sound rounded out what ended up being an all-around wonderful spot.”
Credits
Client: Ad Council; FEMA; New York City Office of Emergency Management; Red Cross in Greater New York
Spot’s Title: “World Upside Down”
Air Date: September 2009
Agency: Cramer-Krasselt
EVP/Chief Creative Officer: Marshall Ross
GCD: G. Andrew Meyer
Co-Executive Creative Director: Dean Stefanides
Co-Executive Creative Director: Larry Hampel
Senior Art Director: David Levy
Copywriter: Andrei Chahine
VP/Director of Broadcast Production: Sergio Lopez
Prod Company: @radical.media
Director: Derin Seale
EP: Frank Scherma
Producer: Samantha Storr
Head of Production: Cathy Dun
Editorial: Whitehouse Chicago
Post/Effects: Asylum
EP: Michael Pardee
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
Producer: Ryan Meredith
Lead VFX/Inferno Artist Supervisor: Rob Trent
Inferno Artist(s): Miles Essmiller, Mark Renton
CG Supervisor: Zachary Tucker
Lead Modeler: Greg Stuhl
Modeler: Toshihiro Sakamaki
Tracker(s): Tom Stanton, Apirak Kamjan, Michael Lori
Lighter: Aaron Vest
Animator(s): Michael Shelton, Steward Burris
Texture Painting: John Hart
Roto/Paint: Jason Bidwell
Roto(s): Elissa Bello, Stephanie Ide, Scott Baxter, Hugo Dominguez
Roto/Shake: Johnny Weckworth
Philip Straub is the Owner, Studio Art Director at the “Unity New Media Entertainment”. Arguably, the greatest & one of the best in the world, in the field of illustration & concept art, as an Art Director, Philip has worked with some of the biggest names in the gaming industry, including : Vivendi Universal, Electronic Arts, NCSoft and Big Fish Games.
Philip’s work has appeared in over 30 childrens’ books, and he has co-authored three digital art tutorial books, including d’artiste Digital Painting.
In the entertainment industry, he has worked with many clients, including : Mattel, Fisher Price, Disney, Universal Studios, Warner Bros, DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Ballistic Media, Toyota, Scholastic, McGraw-Hill, Harper Collins, 3D Total, Zoo Publishing, American Traditional, RJ Reynolds, and Knowledge Adventure.
He also teaches an annual online Concept Art class to students around the globe. Philip is a founding member of “The CGSociety” and regularly contributes to the illustration and digital art communities, by judging illustration competitions, including : The Society of Illustrators, Painter, Expose’and CG Challenges hosted by The CGSociety.
Philip Straub & Ballistic Publishing take the fantasy graphic novel to the next level, with their latest release, “Utherworlds”. “Utherworlds” combines a fantasy novel with written and spoken languages, maps and stunning paintings in a large format, that showcases Philip Straub’s artwork like never before!
CGTantra recently interviewed Philip about his amazing career, take a look at the exclusive interview and view some of Phillip’s incredible work here.
The official website for Planet 51 has been launched and includes in depth character profiles, fun games and a brilliant ‘create your own avatar’ feature. Planet 51 is a galactic sized animated alien adventure comedy revolving around American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker, who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot on it.
To his surprise, he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders…. like Chuck!
Chuck finds himself on the run, frantically trying to avoid capture by the local Anti-Alien Army, who are fuelled by a paranoia of an invasion from outer space. He finds himself befriended by Lem, a friendly teenager, who is fascinated by the world beyond his planet, and determined to help Chuck recover his spaceship and return home.
With the help of his robot companion “Rover” and his new friend Lem, Chuck must navigate his way through the dazzling, but bewildering, landscape of Planet 51 in order to escape becoming a permanent part of the Planet 51 Alien Invaders Space Museum.
Planet 51 was produced Ilion Animation Studios and Handmade Films, and stars the voices of Gary Oldman and John Cleese. The film title is reportedly a reference to ‘Area 51’ a disputed storage and examination site of UFO material, supposedly recovered from New Mexico, after the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Planet 51 is due for release in November 2009.
About Ilion Animation Studios
Ilion Animation Studios was founded in 2002 to create state-of-the-art computer animated movies for worldwide theatrical release using its own purpose-built cutting-edge technology. Ilion Animation Studios and companies Zed and Pyro Studios, were founded and are run by Ignacio Perez Dolset (CEO of Ilion and Pyro) and Javier Perez Dolset (CEO of Zed).
Zed develops and markets entertainment and community products and services for mobile and the Internet. Pyro Studios, creator of the international best-seller video game saga Commandos, is dedicated to latest generation video game development for the international market.
Cast
Chuck : Dwayne Johson
Lem: Justin Long
General Grawl : Gary Oldham
Professor Kipple: John Cleese
Neera: Jessica Biel
Skiff: Seann William Scott
Eckle: Freddie Benedict
Glar: Alan Marriott
Rover: himself
Credits
Director: Jorge Blanco
Co-directors: Marcos Martinez and Javier Abad.
Producers: Ignacio Perez Dolset, Guy Collins, with Peter D. Graves, Michael Ryan
Executive Producer: José A. Rodriguez
Writer: Joe Stillman
With seamless integration of VFX and live-action footage, Asylum helped to launch Halo 3: ODST, the latest in the Halo series of video games, for the Xbox 360 via T.A.G. SF. Concieved by T.A.G., the dramatic live-action short shot by MJZ’s Rupert Sanders with VFX courtesy of Asylum portrays the story of Tarkov, an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper).
From inspiration as a young man Tarkov evolves through his training and harrowing battle experience with the band of elite soldiers against hostile enemies to become a seasoned and deadly warrior.
Expertly weaving sophisticated environment and character enhancements and atmospherics with feature film quality particle explosions, plasma weapons fire, CG drop-pods and futuristic Banshee War Planes, Asylum’s contributions to the piece were both explosive and intimate.
In concert with brilliant photography, these matchless effects gave rise to a piece that evokes an immediate sense of danger and adventure, coupled with the grave realities of duty and honor that define the Halo series.
About Asylum
Asylum is a premier visual effects and design company, handling high-profile features, commercials, music videos, and emerging media content for web and mobile platforms. Asylum created the visual effects for such films as the upcoming Terminator Salvation, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Pirates Of The Caribbean ll & lll, Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (Academy Award and BAFTA nominated), Moulin Rouge, Minority Report, Phantom Of The Opera, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, Tony Scott’s déjà vu, Man on Fire & Domino and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down.
Asylum has done spot work for brands such as Hershey’s, Nike, Sony Playstation, Coke, BMW, Gatorade and Visa. In addition, Asylum Design has created award winning title and graphic design work for such films as Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bedtime Stories, X-Men I & II, The Island, Bad Boys II and XXX.
CREDITS
Client: Xbox
Game Title: Halo 3 ODST
Spots Title: “The Life”
Air Date: September 2009
Agency: T.A.G.
Executive Creative Director(s): Scott Duchon, John Patroulis
Art Director: Aramis Israel
Copywriter: Rick Herrera
Agency Executive Producer: Hannah Murray
Agency Producer: Joyce Chen
Prod Company: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
EP: Eric Stern
Prod. Supervisor(s): Adriana Cebada Mora, Melinda Szepesi
Asst Prod Supervisor: Courtney Nolen
Assoc. Producer: David Lethem
Producer(s): Laurie Boccaccio, Eszter Repassy
DP: Greig Fraser
Post Production: Asylum
Visual Effects Supervisor/Lead Compositor: Rob Moggach
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Ryan Meredith
Coordinator: Emily Avoujageli
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
Compositor(s): Mark Renton, Caitlin Content, Steve Muangman, Miles Essmiller, Rob Trent, Tim Davies, Jonny Hicks, John Stewart, John Weckworth, Brad Scott
Smoke Artist: Alex Gomez
Lead Modeler: Greg Stuhl
Modeler: Toshihiro Sakamaki
Lead Animator: Michael Warner
Animator: Samir Lyons
Texture(s): John Hart, Ryan Reeb
Tracker(s): Tom Stanton, Michael Lori
Lighter(s): Sean Comly, Aaron Vest, Michael Comly
Effects Animator/Lighter: Yurichiro Wamashita
Effects Animator: David Schoneveld
Lead Roto: Elissa Bello
Roto(s): Hugo Dominuez, Laura Murillo, Daniel Linger, Bethany Pederson, Jason Bidwell, Stephanie Ide, Scott Baxter, Midori Witsken, Mark Duckworth, Zac Chowdhury, Huey Carroll
Wire Removal: Bethany Pederson
Lead Matte Painter: Tim Clark
Design: Simon Cassels, Aaron Benoit
CG Supervisor: Jens Zalzala
Editorial: Final Cut
Editor: Eric Zumbrennen
Assistant Editor: Jacob Kuehl
EP: Saima Awan
Post Producer: Kelly Garcia
Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Mark Gethin
Music: Original composition, Human
Music producer: Mike Jurasits
Sound Design: Brian Emrich
Mix: Loren Silber, Lime Studios
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Mix: Loren Silber, Lime Studios
Click 3X has just completed a series of promotional spots for the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards that celebrate the show’s return to New York City. The videos pay homage to the theatrical classic musical West Side Story, featuring show host Russell Brand and VMA-nominated musicians performing a recreation of the signature tune Tonight throughout a series of original Manhattan sets.
The spots were produced individually and then edited together as one fully-mixed anthem. Each have a distinct look and feature some of the biggest names in the music business belting out a hope-filled tune in anticipation of the night ahead. Ne-Yo, in classic Michael Jackson-style attire dances his way through a graffiti-laced junkyard. Swanky Katy Perry hustles up an attitude in a rooftop garden.
Glamorous Taylor Swift sings in the rain out of the open window of a taxi. Cobra Starship slams through the Subway in a musical parade while Leighton Meester sings on the steps. And a cane-swinging Russell Brand sings about the awaiting night’s events through the city’s gritty backstreets. Each of the bits uses the network’s iconic spaceman statuettes, a hallmark of the VMAs since their inception.
The various shoots each required different locations, inside and outside, on-stage and off, shot at various times of day. Click 3X worked closely with MTV Director Sevi Peter-Thomas and Producer Kris Walter to create a campaign that maintained an theatrical performance without compromising each artist’s contemporary style. To ensure a successful delivery, the creative and production teams from Click 3X and MTV coordinated so that the live-action and post compositing, 3D, 2D and color correct would be consistent and clear.
Peter-Thomas utilized RED Cameras for all spots. Post Millennium edited the footage and delivered EDLs to Click 3X, who would conform by importing the footage from the Final Cut Pro projects using Crimson, creating 2K DPX sequences. The creative team then began working between two Flames and CGI pulling together a variety of elements. Each scene had a distinct set of needs, ranging from providing atmosphere, creating skyline elements in CGI, lighting changes, and even compositing shots from multiple days. The final composites were brought to a DI process at Company 3 for a final color balance.
“Our team literally had to change the world with each shoot,” noted Click 3X’s Szumski. “Katy Perry’s New York skyline was composited behind her on blue screen. The interior of a Brooklyn studio became a junkyard beneath the Brooklyn Bridge for Ne-Yo’s spot. Using HDRI imagery, we transformed a daytime shot of a downtown Manhattan back alley into Russell Brand’s nighttime jaunt to Radio City Music Hall. Taylor Swift’s stunning Times Square cab ride was shot in a Nashville studio. Each shot had a different set of compositing challenges, but MTV’s director, producer, and DP were all really easy to work with and the shots turned out perfectly.”
MTV tapped Click 3X to assist with the campaign after several successful collaborations earlier in the year, including the See You Sunday promos and packaging, and The Phone and Star Trek promotional campaigns.
“Click 3X is uniquely positioned to work on this campaign both because of our existing relationship with the pros at MTV and the unique technical and creative skill set that we bring,” stated Click 3X Executive Producer Connor Swegle. “Mark’s technical expertise enables him to work closely with the live-action team to tackle the unique challenges of throughout pre-production and on set, while his creative abilities are hands on with clients and the internal team to guide the post process. Anthony Filipakis, our head of CGI, really nailed the spots’ photo-real 3D needs, even creating an original Radio City Music Hall element to drop into a downtown alleyway, and John Budion was able to take his understanding of the creative needs from supervising on set in Nashville and bring that to his creative process on Flame.”
“This was a really high-profile project – one of the main efforts on MTV’s calendar, and we were really pleased that they selected us for the challenge,” said Click 3X President Peter Corbett. “The logistics of coordinating the talent over multiple shoot dates and locations required close collaboration with MTV’s team. Our team did a great job bringing some of the most talented musicians on the scene today together to create a memorable campaign that will not only drive interest in the network’s annual award show, but also managed to honor the legacy and image of West Side Story, one of America’s most iconic brands.”
The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009 at 9 p.m. EDT on MTV. Taylor Swift will perform live, while Ne-Yo, Katy Perry and Leighton Meester will present awards. The artists’ VMA nominations include:
Ne-Yo – Best Male Video; Miss Independent
Katy Perry – Best Female Video; Hot N Cold
Taylor Swift – Best Female Video; You Belong with Me
Cobra Starship (featuring Leighton Meester) – Best Pop Video, Best Direction in Video; Good Girls Go Bad.
About Click 3X
New York-based Click 3X produces cutting-edge visual solutions for commercials, feature films, television, music videos, and broadcast clients around the globe. Founded in 1993, Click 3X has become one of the preeminent providers of innovative media content, housed in an environment led by artists, yet supported by one of the most technologically advanced digital studios in the industry. With award-winning design, powerful visual effects, and a visionary animation team, Click 3X has worked on array of diverse highly-recognizable projects, including a series of films from academy-award winning directors like Jonathan Demme and Davis Guggenheim, a recent multimedia package for eight HD Time Warner spots, My Home 2.0, a five episode reality TV series for Verizon Fios, and a long line of recent commercials for major brands such as Sharp, Ford, and Goodyear.
Credits
Client: MTV
Spot Title: VMA Promos
Air Date: August 2009
Agency: MTV
Director: Seyi Peter-Thomas
Producer: Kris Walter
Post/Effects: Click 3X
Creative Director: Mark Szumski
Head of Production: Jared Yeater
Director of CGI: Anthony Filipakis
Managing Director, Broadcast: David Edelstein
Executive Producer: Connor Swegle
VFX Supervision/Lead Flame Artist(s): Mark Szumski, John Budion
Flame Artist: John Ciampa
Flame Artist: Johnny Starace
Online Editor: JD Yepes
CG Animator/Lighter: Grace Hwang
CG Animator: Jong Moon Woo
CG Animator: Kristen Pederson
CG Modeler: Paul Liaw
After Effects Artist: Tom Matheu
Junior Flame Artist: Salvatore Randazzo
Junior Flame Artist: JD Yepes
Shake Roto: Sophia Avgousti
Producer(s): Rob Meyers, Jared Yeater
Creatives are fueled by a mysterious force that inspires great ideas, fresh new ways of seeing the world, and the courage to do things differently. All too often, this expressive force is zapped by the demands of the industry. Revitalizing these creative talents provides a renewed sense of being and the spark to stimulate the imagination.
motion09 is an event that inspires creativity. Once a year, animators, motion graphic artists, title designers, VFX artists and broadcast designers come together to share their skills, work, and professional insights at this unique summit. Joined by 360 industry professionals and students, four days are spent together in a collaborative environment designed for experiencing and participating in the creative process.
The ‘rock stars’ of the industry are the stars of motion09. The event promises yet another year with some of the hottest talent in the industry. Many favorites are returning to motion09, including the extremely talented director, Jamie Caliri {title design: Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, United States of Tara, Heart}, visionary screen designer, Mark Coleran {The Bourne Ultimatum, Mission Impossible, Mr. and Mrs. Smith}, the authorities on After Effects – Chris & Trish Meyer, VFX mastermind, Alex Lindsay {Pixel Corps, ILM}, and animator extraordinaire, Dan Haskett {Disney}.
And there’s more: animator/director Phil NIbbelink [The Fox and the Hound, Casper, Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss}, Tony Romain {Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, Don’t Forget the Lyrics}, and animator Stanton Cruse {Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Nicktoons}.
To view the work of the motion09 rockstars, visit: motion.tv/. motion.tv serves as a venue for motion conference attendees, speakers, and sponsors to share their work, inspire others, and be inspired.
The motion09 ‘rockstars’ include:
- Karin Fong (Imaginary Forces)
- Andrew Orloff (Zoic)
- Rod Basham (Imaginary Forces)
- Synderela Peng (yU+co.)
- Michael Waldron (nailgun*)
- Jim Berney (Sony Imageworks)
- Bill Lebeda (Picture Mill)
- Eric van der Wilden (nailgun*)
- Patrick McDonough (PMcD Design)
Jamie Caliri, Mark Coleran, Dan Haskett, Chris & Trish Meyer – and many more.
Prime Focus, one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, is proud to announce the launch of View-D, a proprietary 2D-to-3D conversion process that allows filmmakers to efficiently create stereoscopic 3D movies from source material shot on virtually any medium. View-D will be introduced at international launch events in Mumbai, London and Los Angeles to unveil the Prime Focus global rebrand, in which Post Logic and Frantic Films VFX will be brought together under the Prime Focus name.
