cgnews

Asylum, in collaboration with ad agency Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago and @RadicalMedia Director Jeff Zwart, completed a major VFX feat for a new TV spot introducing the Porsche Panamera – the first four-seat sports car from the iconic carmaker. The elaborate, technically challenging commercial was the perfect showcase for Asylum’s vast VFX capability.

Family Tree features a stampede of over 50 classic Porsche cars accelerating across an open plain. Ever-shifting camera angles – from overhead panoramas to driver-seat views – capture the onward momentum of the pack as one car – the Panamera – weaves its way through. Interspersed with these ground-level angles is a birds-eye view of the entire collection etching tracks in the landscape to progressively create the branches of the Porsche family tree.

“Porsche is a company synonymous with excellence: they have an incredible history, universal brand recognition and extremely high-quality products. Working with C-K and @RadicalMedia to execute this grand vision for Porsche was a real honor,” noted Asylum EP Michael Pardee. “This project was a challenge on many different levels, but our team came together and produced something really special.”

Coordinating several vehicles in 57 separate shots presented a myriad of challenges for Asylum. Each scene needed to be camera tracked perfectly to provide exact camera data to create a realistic landscape. The cars had to be matchmoved and roto’d in every shot so that the tracks in the surface and the dust could be procedurally generated from each vehicle. The tracks laid in the surface were crucial to the story, allowing us to see where other cars had already been and, by curving the tracks away from the pack, suggesting the direction the cars moved to form new branches, giving credibility to the end reveal – the formation of the family tree. All previs were done to scale using satellite views of the set at El Toro Airbase to coordinate the action on the tarmac.

A realistic-looking desert plain, with tracks and dust trails from the speeding cars, had to be created in CG for the 50 live-action cars to live in. All the environments, tracks, dust and previs dynamics were done in Houdini for its scalability and procedural capabilities. Houdini’s Digital Assets allowed Asylum to modify the look of the terrain, tracks and dust in a single shot, quickly propagate the changes to all shots and handle pre-composites of certain elements prior to handing them off for compositing.

Most of the shots required adding additional cars and some needed cars removed and replaced with CG cars. A number of different techniques were utilized to achieve this task.

Live-action cars were roto’d from other takes, stabilized and retracked into new plates. Hi-res photos of each car were taken and relit before being animated to create certain shots and CG cars were modeled and animated to replace unwanted cars or to populate shots with too few Porsche models. Every car in the commercial, irrespective of being from the original shoot or being added digitally, was modeled and matchmoved so we had digital assets to generate tire tracks and dust. Animation and matchmoving the cars was done using Maya software.

Asylum incorporated sun, flares, shadows, dust and tracks to each scene to balance the lighting irregularities caused by the sunup-to-sundown shooting schedule. The Paint and Roto department had an enormous task of extracting a large number of cars from their original backgrounds. The Paint team needed to remove camera vehicle reflections, tracking markers and runway markings that were either reflected in the cars or removed from their shadows. Matte paintings were created in Photoshop, with camera tracking done in Syntheyes and roto handled in Silhouette v3.4. Final compositing and integration was done on the Flame.

“To prepare for these multiple challenges, Asylum was involved in extensive pre-vis and on-set supervision ensuring the smoothest integration of the VFX with the photography,” stated Asylum’s CG Supervisor Zach Tucker. “We built a system to animate cars that included procedural systems for car dynamics and tracks being laid on the surface, allowing us to quickly visualize the number, year, make and model of cars needed in each shot. Finding the correct balance between live action and CG was tricky. The spot always had to be believable, or we would have failed. Once all of the elements were created and refined, it was quite an undertaking to mold the imagery into a place which was both consistent and convincing.”

“We worked closely with both the director and C-K to ensure that we succeeded in achieving both the look of the commercial, including which cars were showcased in which shots, and delivering a spot that convincingly told the introduction story of the newest member of the Porsche family and the heritage that inspired its creation,” noted Asylum’s VFX Supervisor Tim Davies. “The launch of the Porsche Panamera was definitely an exercise where Asylum’s expansive array of talent was utilized across each and every department. Everyone had a major role and every department delivered seamless work.”

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 Apple. 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.

The Creds:
Client: Porsche Cars North America
Spot Title: Family Tree
Air Date: October 15, 2009

Agency: Cramer-Krasselt/Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Marshall Ross
Associate Creative Director: Rick Hamann
Copywriter: Gary Doyle; Rick Hamann
Art Director: Matt Spett; Luke Partridge
VP/Director of Broadcast Production: Sergio Lopez

Production Company: @Radical Media
Director: Jeff Zwart

Post Production: Asylum
Visual Effects Supervisor: Tim Davies
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Mark Kurtz
Coordinator: Jennie Burnett
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
CG Supervisor: Zach Tucker
Compositor(s): Tim Davies, Jonathan Hicks, Tim Bird
Lead Technical Designer: Jeff Willette
Lead Modeler: Greg Stuhl
Modeler(s): Toshihiro Sakamaki, Josh Robinson, Lersak Bunuparadah, Chad Fehmie
Animator(s): Samir Lyons, Michael Warner, Michael Shelton
Texture/Tracker: Ryan Reeb
Texture: John Hart
Tracker(s): Eddie Offermann, Michael Lori, Lauren Van Houten, Michael Maker, Tom Stanton, Ian Doss, Danny Garcia, Apirak Kamjan
Lighter(s): Aaron Vest, Austin Das, Sean Durnan
Effects Animator: Jens Zalzala
Lead Roto: Elissa Bello
Roto(s): Hugo Dominuez, Laura Murillo, Daniel Linger, Jason Bidwell, Stephanie Ide, Scott Baxter, Midori Witsken, Mark Duckworth, Zac Chowdhury, Huey Carroll, Chris Cortese, Bethany Pederson Onstad
Matte Painter: Tim Clark

RELATED LINKS:
www.asylumfx.com

Popularity: 17% [?]

View Slideshow

The Garrigan Lyman Group recently tapped Superfad to create a branding commercial that would embody the spirit and beauty of Haiti for Voila, a Haitian telecommunications company. At the heart of the campaign is Haitian-born superstar Wyclef Jean from whose hands spill the paint that creates an animated and colorful representation of the essence of Haiti.

“Our brand strategy for Voila is to position them as uniquely Haitian,” said Rebecca Lyman, Principal, Garrigan Lyman Group. “This differentiates them from the competition and reinforces Voila’s strong commitment to the people of Haiti. The spot launched in time for Voila’s 10-year anniversary and is a part of a larger integrated campaign that celebrates Haiti’s rich and vibrant culture.”

Superfad shot the live action performance of Wyclef Jean on location in New York and returned to Seattle where the animated world was created. This imaginary realm, stylized representations of Haiti, is an homage to Haitian Folk Art style – an aesthetic previously unknown to the Superfad team and one that required copious and extensive research.

“This was one of the more challenging, but also one of the most exciting projects I have been tasked with in my career,” comments Superfad Art Director Carlos Stevens. “Our main goal for this project was to use the Haitian style of artwork to drive a meaningful narrative that would support Wyclef, his actions and his words throughout the commercial. The task itself was difficult because Haitian art is done in a unique style that is unfamiliar to our artists. We all had to adapt to an illustration style we have never encountered before, which made the project all the more challenging, but also fresh and compelling.”

The goal was to integrate Wyclef into his narrative, which sparked the idea of having his actions deliver the visuals. Superfad chose to use a mix of cel animation, 2d artwork and 3d animation to create the most dynamic visual presentation possible. The result is a commercial that reads as a love letter to Haiti and its people.

VOILA “MESSAGE”
Agency: Garrigan Lyman Group
Account Director: Naomi Ruiz
Chief Creative Officer: Bryan Cummings
Creative Director: Kalie Kimball-Malone
Senior Producer: Kathleen Minnis Olson
Senior Art Director: Jim Nesbitt
Senior Writer: Darren Vance

Design Production: Superfad
Executive Creative Director: Will Hyde
Art Director: Carlos Stevens
CGI/VFX Director: Dade Orgeron
3D Artists: Phiphat Pinyosophon, Andrew Butterworth, John Cherniack, Herman Kim, Yas Koyama, Chris Hill
Compositors: Carlos Stevens, Loren Judah, Paulo Dias, David Viau Additional Compositing: David Holm, Justin Pae Cel Animation: Dave Creek
Editor: Duncan Sharp
Flame Artist: Joe Vitale
Producer: Nick Hegge
Head of Production: Chris Volckmann
Executive Producer: Rob Sanborn

RELATED LINKS:
www.asylumfx.com

Popularity: 13% [?]

View Slideshow

Football’s ability to inspire and unite is a reoccurring theme in a new campaign created by Mrs. K for Al Jazeera Sport. The visually striking project fuses film and motion design, to speak to the passion of the global community of European professional football fans.

Following a worldwide search, Al Jazeera selected Colorado-based Mrs. K for an extensive campaign to brand and promote the network’s new broadcast of the UEFA Champions League – the playoffs and Superbowl of European soccer. The campaign includes three promos and seven show packages airing throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“We had enjoyed Mrs. K’s past work and were very interested in seeing how they would approach the branding and promotion of our new UEFA Champions League broadcasts,” notes Mohammed Al Bader, Head of Art & Creative Department at Al Jazeera Sport. “We were very excited by the designs that they presented and the concepts were perfectly positioned for both Champions League and Al Jazeera Sport.”

“Throughout the entire project we were given unprecedented creative freedom from Al Jazeera,” says Director Jeanne Kopeck. “They loved our original pitch and after our meetings in Qatar, they trusted us to execute everything in a mostly unsupervised form. It was an amazing experience from beginning to end.”

The spot concepts required a global feel, so with the project’s limited schedule, Director Jeanne Kopeck had to pick live-action locations carefully. She chose South Africa based on the extraordinary quality of its production crews and passion for the sport, Dubai for it’s Arabic talent and authentic locations, and the US for stadium shots and a “British Pub.” She and longtime DP Andrew Turman elected to shoot 35mm film for its unsurpassed ability to capture human emotion, and Kopeck asked for real kids to be cast from the townships in Soweto to bring an authenticity of experience to the “Dreams” spot.

The motion-graphics intensive program packages were shot Stateside and involved green screen mixed with extreme-high-speed shooting on the ITRONIX camera for player action and dynamic fluids. In order to successfully orchestrate the massive graphics and animation effort, Mrs K. brought on a number of additional designers and animators, selected based both on past collaborations and expertise.

Mrs. K Creative Director Mitch Monson, who concepted, designed and managed the program packages, explains: “Since Al Jazeera wanted to keep a very human quality to all of the pieces, a great ‘in-camera’ sensibility was required. There was a lot of integration between live action talent and the 3D imagery that we designed for the packages.”

Speaking to the incredible challenges of completing all of the show packages in seven weeks, Monson concludes, “Delivering in such a short time period was the biggest part of the challenge. Fortunately, with teams in LA, Denver, Minneapolis, New York and London all working simultaneously, we were able to multi-task, and get everything delivered on time.”

To guarantee the seamless integration of the graphics packages into the programming schedule, Monson traveled to Milan to personally supervise their initial implementation.

For work review and final deliverables, Mrs. K set up an exclusive online micro-site. This gave the Al Jazeera teams in Doha, Madrid, Milan and London immediate access to all of the work being created for the project.

According to Mohammed Al Bader: “The team at Mrs. K understood our needs and was a pleasure to work with. We are so excited about the Dreams promo, that we will be airing it, not only on the Al Jazeera Sport Channels, but on the other Al Jazeera Networks, and are buying additional time on outside networks as well.”

The promos and packages began rolling out earlier this month and their use will culminate in the broadcast of the UEFA Cup Finals.

“We hope the campaign will help audiences to see more than just sport; that they will also find a more human, emotional, inspirational perspective to the work,” concludes Kopeck. “We feel this will lead to a stronger connection to Al Jazeera and an understanding of its unique vision, global perspective and the exceptional coverage it brings to viewers.”

About Mrs. K:
Who is Mrs. K? She’s as much a real person as anyone in this business. She’s practical, plain-spoken and wildly creative. She makes stuff up and then she makes it happen. She is guided by the simple belief that good design, strong storytelling and a full belly are the most important virtues. Physically Mrs. K has offices in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the Great Plains of Minnesota. Spiritually she lives wherever people hunger for beautiful imagery and a great hunk of pie.

Program Packages:
“A Match to Remember”
“Champions League Studio”
“Qatar League Studio”
“Spanish League // La Liga”
“Italian League // Serie A”
“Preview and Review”
“Stars”

Promos:
“Warriors”
“Born Champions”
“Dreams”

Client: Al Jazeera Sport
GM, Al Jazeera Sport: Mr. Nasser Al Khelaifi Art & Creative Director: Mr. Mohammed M. Al-Bader Head of Graphics and Promotion: Mr. Jabar Al Nuimi Designer, Graphic and Promotion Section: Mr. Ahmed Khamis

Production/Design Company: Mrs. K
EP: Peter Thron
Director/Sr. Creative Director: Jeanne Kopeck Design/Sr. Creative Director: Mitch Monson
DP: Andrew Turman
Producer: Lauren Worth
Line Producer: Erin Ward
Project Managers: Toby Keil & David Hofflich
Copywriter: Merrit Pulliam

Graphics Production:
AndImages: “Champions League”
Thornberg and Forester: “A Match to Remember”
Chris Averbeck: promo titles

Music:
Chris Toland: “Spanish League,” “Qatar League,” “Born Champions”
Don Grady: “Warriors All,” “Dreams of Champions”
Paul Hartwig: “A Match to Remember,” “Italian League”

Edit & Finish: Splice Here/Minneapolis
Editor: Herman Nieuwoudt

Color Correction: Company 3 “Warriors” and “Dreams”

RELATED LINKS:
www.mrsk.tv

Popularity: 14% [?]

View Slideshow

The new season of E!’s number-one rated reality show “The Girls Next Door,” features not just a new cast of blonds for Hef, but also a new show open/package created by live action + motion graphics studio nailgun*. The new open expands on nailgun*’s original package, rebooting it with a sleeker, HD look that introduces the new “Girls Next Door,” and adds some fresh faces that will be seen around the mansion this season.

“The concept was always about presenting the girls, Hef and the mansion environment in a very playful, clever way – like a dollhouse brought to life,” Michael Waldron, nailgun* Creative Director says.

“The first time out the look was driven by the use of tons of still photos that E! provided, which we combined with our own 3D animation to give it a stop-motion effect. This time though we wanted to give it a more fluid look.”

To achieve that Waldron and his crew traveled to the famed mansion in Los Angeles and used high res still cameras to capture the cast inside the mansion. He also shot many of the famed mansion locations such as the grand hallway, the pool, the grotto and the zoo.

Armed with a cache of HD still images, the nailgun* team created the spot’s distinctive look and movement by first digitally separating the subject’s bodies into various pieces, then reconnecting and linking them together so that they move in a, “stop motion meets marionette” puppet style. That footage, composited with the various photos from around the mansion and nailgun*’s own lush 3D animation, gives the open its characteristic ‘dollhouse’ look.

“This one was much more complex creatively and technically then the last ‘Girls Next Door’ open,” Erik van der Wilden, nailgun*’s Director of Editorial and Animation adds. “To really get this to move in the smooth way we envisioned meant a lot of rotoscoping and compositing work, and some long renders thanks to HD photos of 4,000 pixels and larger. But in the end it was very satisfying — you don’t often get the chance to revisit and improve upon something successful that you did five years ago, but that’s what we were able to do with this.”

About nailgun*
Founded by Michael Waldron and Erik van der Wilden in 2003, New York-based nailgun*, is a collaborative of artists – designers, writers, photographers, editors, producers, animators, filmmakers, illustrators, strategists, painters – who’ve come together to create unique visual solutions for clients that include ESPN, HGTV, Spike, VH1, E!, Versus, TV Land, Universal Channel, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, Publicis, McCann-Erickson NY and Ogilvy & Mather.

More information on nailgun* at:
www.nailgun.tv
www.twitter.com/nailguntv
www.nailgun.tv/facebook

Click here for more info about ‘The Girls Next Door”
www.eonline.com/on/shows/girlsnextdoor

Creative Credits
Client: E! / Charing Cross Entertainment
Project: “The Girls Next Door” show open/package
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

Popularity: 18% [?]

View Slideshow

MTV Asia tapped design & production studio Royale to create the music video for “Take Me to the Philippines,” the latest effort by hip-hop artist Apl.de.Ap of The Black Eyed Peas. Created in conjunction with the Philippine Department of Tourism, the video visually underscores Apl’s lyric homage to his homeland and serves as a unique medium as part of a greater campaign to promote tourism in the Philippines. Royale Creative created the video with a dynamic mix of live-action and 2D/3D animation.

The video embarks fans and virtual tourists alike on a brilliant journey through the Philippines, guided by the archipelago’s hippest national ambassador Apl.de.Ap. En route, an eclectic animated collage abounds of all things Filipino, revealing one-of-a-kind landmarks, exotic wonders and cultural gems such as the Jeepney, whale sharks, Chocolate Hills and more.

“We had a marvelous time working with Royale on the music video,” says MTV Asia Creative Director Andrew Lo. “From pre-production to the final product, everything went great. We are very proud of the video and look forward to working with Apl and Royale in the near future.”

“Collaborating with MTV Asia and a renowned artist like Apl was an exceptional experience, very symbiotic,” remarks Creative Director Brien Holman. “Everyone involved made the entire production a huge success.”

Creative Director Jayson Whitmore adds: “We’re thrilled more clients are tapping into our production capabilities, especially a venerable entity like MTV. From the outset, our mission has been to deliver hybrid creative solutions — ‘Take me to the Philippines’ epitomizes that through a unique medium: it’s part tourism spot, part music video.”

Royale took an experimental approach to both the live action and design aspects of the production: from freeform green screen shoots with Apl.de.Ap to rendering eclectic interpretations of Filipino imagery.

“Michell and Andrew allotted ample room to experiment, which really helped nurture every aspect of the creative,” says Whitmore. Describing the live-action shoots, Whitmore continues, “While the boards were generally loose, our approach was collaborative, as MTV Asia approved each scene as we shot.”

Royale says the organic shoots also lent to a comfortable, performance-friendly environment for Apl.de.Ap (and his accompanying Filipino belle) to work within, as he aspired before the shoot to let the music guide his movement, rather than choreograph.

Complimenting Apl.de.Ap’s fluid on-screen performance, Royale seamlessly integrated animation and graphics. Highlighted by vibrant and tropical palettes, the renderings are quintessential interpretations of Filipino assets, which comprise the video’s lush environments. Because 90 percent of the images in the video were repurposed, Whitmore says the inherent challenge was rendering them fresh and contextual, with varying dimensions and depths, while maintaining an aesthetic cohesion.

“From a design standpoint, it was paramount to maintain a balance between subtlety and blatancy,” explains Holman. “We aimed to steer clear of constant literal translations. With the whale shark, for example, we rendered it as a ‘constellation graphic,’ evoking themes of a whimsical, round-the-world journey – really echo the song’s tone and message. Experimenting with and exhausting an array of media and software achieved part of that balance, too.”

Pleased with the outcome of the video, Apl.de.Ap and his management have recently elected to repurpose some of the video’s visual elements and implement them into other outlets and mediums under the Apl.de.Ap name, including his recently launched record label Jeepney Music, as well as the non-profit Apl Foundation based in Silver Lake, CA.

Royale concludes, “Apl.de.Ap is truly an amazing artist to work with. His passion for his homeland and its people inspired the entire Royale team. Through his ability to connect with people as an entertainer, Apl has a deeply profound mission with all his philanthropic efforts. We have a deep respect for that mission.”

“Take Me to the Philippines,” which debuted on October 1, 2009, launched as part of MTV International’s Annual Creative Highlight.

About Royale:
Royale is a motion design & production house based in Los Angeles, CA. Founded by creative directors Jayson Whitmore, Brien Holman and executive producer Jennifer Lucero, Royale’s greatest love is to help solve its client’s needs through the visceral language of motion design. Tapping innovative creative from a multi-dimensional team of talent, the Royale treatment is an endless stream of creative solutions that surpass client expectation, while maintaining a comfortable, relaxed and highly creative environment. Royale has completed projects for commercial, broadcast, music video, and live stage events for brands and clients including Comedy Central, McDonald’s UK, Discovery Channel, MTV Asia, and JetBlue, to name a few, while collaborating with notable agencies like Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, The Martin Agency, JWT NY, and Leo Burnett UK.

CREDITS
Client: MTV Asia
Description of spot(s) including title(s): Apl.de.Ap “Take Me to the Philippines” music video
Where shot: The Source, Los Angeles, CA
MTV Asia:
Producer: Michell Tan
Creative Director: Andrew Lo

Advertising Agency: N/A
Creative Director: Brien Holman
Creative Director: Jayson Whitmore
Executive Producer: Jen Lucero
Producer: Anne Hong

Production Company: Royale, Los Angeles, CA
Director: Royale
Executive Producer: Jen Lucero
Line Producer: Rayna Saslove
Editorial Company: Royale, Los Angeles, CA
Editor: Royale

Visual Effects: Royale
Designers: Royale
Animators: Royale

RELATED LINKS
www.weareroyale.com

Popularity: 17% [?]

View Slideshow

The indie rock band Modest Mouse is getting the royal treatment from Bent Image Lab’s new director/partner Nando Costa. Just completed, the band’s new music video is a dark and expressive piece of film-making. Heavily rooted in live-action, the impressive six-minute video includes intense moments of stop motion, visual effects, and motion graphics techniques, all brought to life within the studio’s walls.

The visuals follow an artist who enters his personal sanctuary where he is presented with a hand-crafted drawing tool that assists him in materializing his mental impressions. Through drawing circular patterns, the machine discharges an endless web of yarn that guides him through his visual representations of his memories. The story progresses to reveal that he is divided between two worlds, one of dull reality and the second of warped memories. In the process of finding a way out of his consciousness, he is trapped between the two competing spaces, which eventually inflict lethal damage, acting as metaphors to self-destruction.

This lyrical and moving piece was conceived by Nando Costa working closely with lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock to polish some of the film’s intricacies. Featuring a seamless combination of live-action and stop motion that alternates between stage shots of Modest Mouse and a spiraling dream-like world of ever-shifting landscapes, Whale Song is a stunning representation of the combined capabilities of Nando and Bent.

The variety and execution of the VFX portions of the video – from yarn reeling into complex patterns to a guitar that plays with no musician attached – strongly evoke the confused and surreal patterns of one’s warped memories. Additional creative touches such as animated and intricate photographic collages and giant CG snails sliding across the band’s stage – add variety and depth to the Bent world.

“This new video is the perfect showcase for the benefits of the collaboration between myself and Bent,” noted Costa. “I typically wouldn’t have created a film with this much live-action or stop motion, and Bent also wouldn’t normally approach a project with such a strong motion graphics influence, which is what I have long specialized in. With such well integrated in-house teams, I can’t imagine that there’s a project out there that we couldn’t pull off.”

One of the challenges in Whale Song was to recreate the contours of an ever changing, disorienting and intriguing series of landscapes. Costa shot the majority of the piece with Bent’s RED One cameras, which came in handy for their 4K capabilities when adding camera movement in post. In order to create the feeling that lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock was being split up between two competing scenarios of pure reality and his imagination, for example, Costa mounted two of the RED cameras side by side on a custom plate, each with identical lenses set at an angle to simulate a stereoscopic effect.

In another instance, band members that appeared to be standing on the ground were actually hoisted aloft and secured to a fake ground plane, which meant that the stage floor was perpendicular to the ground. This situation intentionally restrained their flexibility and shifted the gravity, adding oddness to their movements.

Costa used a variety of frame rates, ranging from time-lapses at 6 frames per second, to 1000 fps shots from a Phantom camera to give the feeling of variety of speed in the character’s memories. Blue screen stages were used extensively to place Isaac against the varying landscapes of mountains, dense forest valleys, and deserts. Bent’s CG department was also responsible for creating significant portions of the video’s landscapes and scenic elements.

During production, Nando and his team relied solely on a very detailed script containing technical and creative notes, live-action and animation guidelines, with specifications for composting and stop motion, which were all previously defined and polished by the director. “From what I’ve learned, producing a project at Bent is a wonderfully self-contained experience,” noted Costa. “From building intricate props to figuring out complex CG shots, Bent has specialists in all fields. I’ll walk over to the stage for live-action, then back to compositing, load the footage and work from there. It makes the whole process immeasurably easier, and creatively freeing.”

“Seeing this video makes me feel good about what we’ve done here at Bent”, stated Bent EP Ray Di Carlo”. We set out to establish a creative clubhouse atmosphere where talented people like Nando could come to work. I’ve always admired directors who can hold a project’s final vision in their minds eye and are able to let the talents around them do their respective jobs for a projects whose creative whole becomes more than the sum of it’s parts, and that defines Nando. Seeing Nando come in, suddenly doing things that he wasn’t used to doing, and still delivering at a high creative and technical level, means that David, Chel and I were able to create a place where everyone learns others’ disciplines. That’s rare. It’s what we set out to do – what we originally wanted — but when you see it work, it’s amazing.”

About Bent Image Lab:
Bent Image Lab is a Portland Oregon-based production company and creative laboratory, known for melding art, design and storytelling. It is a place where the brightest ideas are driven with an artist’s passion and realized through the use of cutting edge technology. Established in 2002, BENT specializes in wildly creative spots and videos that range from the frenetic to the deeply moving. Saturday Night Live, Coca-Cola, Zune, Lux Soap, Aflac, Budweiser, FOX, Guitar Hero, HP, PBS, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Live Earth, and film directors Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant, are just a few of the high-profile clients that have called on BENT for some of their quirky, highly-original work.

CREDITS
Music: Modest Mouse
Animation Studio: Bent Image Lab
Director: Nando Costa
Executive Producer: Ray Di Carlo
Senior Producer: Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Kara Place
Production Coordinator: Ryan Shanholtzer
Director of Photography: Bryce Fortner

Motion Control Operator: Jim Birkett
Gaffer: Adam Burr, Jim Birkett
Phantom HD Technician: Benji Brucker
Production Assistants: Andrew Ellmaker, Charlie James, Esa Di Carlo, Morgan Hobart, Samuel Moyle
Kinetic Sculptor: Ben Hopson
Set Designers: Nando Costa, Solomon Burbridge
Set & Prop Fabricators: Daniel Miller, Eric Urban, Greg Fosmire, Jamie Hanson, Jen Prokopowicz, Justin Warner, Kimi Kaplowitz, Marty Easterday, Sarah Hoopes, Solomon Burbridge,
Art Department Coordinator: Evan Stewart
Art Department Intern: Jessie Weitzel
Carpenter: Drew Lytle
Graphic Designer: Nando Costa
3D Lead: Fred Ruff
3D Artists: Eric Durante, Shirak Agresta
2D Animation & Compositing: Brian Kinkley, Brian Merrel, Jay Twenge, McKay Marshall, Nando Costa, Orland Nutt, Randy Wakerlin
Rotoscoping: Ben Blankenship, Randy Wakerlin
Compositing Intern: Dustin Dybevik
Stop-Motion Animation: Jen Prokopowicz, Marty Easterday
Still Photography: Jared Tarbell, Nando Costa
Processing: Barbarian Group
Behind The Scenes Photographer: Ben Blankenship
Special Thanks to: Isaac Brock, Darrin Wiener, Linn Olofsdotter

RELATED LINKS
www.bentimagelab.com
www.modestmouse.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

View Slideshow

Bent Image Labs’ Ken Lidster recently directed another brilliantly hilarious stop-motion spot, this time in conjunction with Deutsch/LA to promote the Diet Dr Pepper brand. I Exist is a stop-motion extravaganza that evokes the Stop-motion/Rudolph animation specials of old. The :30 features an unlikely cast of fantastic characters arranged in a circle of chairs as part of the “I exist!” support group. The Easter Bunny, a leprechaun, the Tooth Fairy, Sasquatch, and an alien sit in a circle listening raptly as Santa Claus complains about not being believed by his core constituents.

When the circle’s Diet Dr Pepper delivery man empathizes, Santa doubts that he could understand his plight. The Easter Bunny samples the drink and goes crazy over its tremendous flavor. Still, the other mythical creatures are skeptical. “So you want people to believe there’s a satisfying diet drink? Good luck with that one, Bub,” Santa says, as the entire cast launches into uncontrollable laughter.

“You can wait your whole life and never get a commercial script with such an outstanding plot. I thought this was the best thing I’d ever read before I even got to the end of the first sentence,” noted Lidster. “The folks at Deutsch really hit a home run with this one, and I’m so glad they looked to Bent to make this happen.”

The process for creating this campaign parallels work Lidster established for JWT New York a few years back. Lipton Brisk’s Dojo featured a stop-motion battle between martial arts legend Bruce Lee, the Karate Kid and his master, Mr. Miyagi, which earned an animation category honor in the 2000 AICP Show and inclusion in the MoMA’s film archives. Lidster also directed memorable stop-motion campaigns for Chips Ahoy, while Bent Image is known for countless `Rudolph’ inspired visuals including OfficeMax (Santa’s Helper) with Eddie Steeples, AFLAC with an animated flying goose, and two Alltel campaigns.

Lidster and the rest of the Bent team worked closely with the agency on all stages of the project, from developing the characters’ personalities, going from character sketches through a variety of clay models to pop through staging, and final animation performance. Deutsch also visited Bent’s Portland studio several times to approve pre-production elements, final lighting, initial scene preparation, post production, and final color correct.

Bent created duplicates of the set and triples of the nine-inch-high characters to streamline production. They then shot the stop-motion on high-res digital cameras. Certain shots, such as the soda pour, were done on one of the studio’s in-house Red cameras, using the Red Ultra Prime lenses.

“Ken is a master when it comes to projects such as this,” noted Bent Partner/EP Ray Di Carlo. “He’s second-to-none with character development and has an amazing attention to detail work ethic. In typical Bent fashion, the team rallied together to create the entire campaign in-house. The agency came to us with a great idea and we’re fortunate they were such strong collaborators – we’re really happy with the final product.”

About Bent Image Lab:
Bent Image Lab is a Portland Oregon-based production company and creative laboratory, known for melding art, design and storytelling. It is a place where the brightest ideas are driven with an artist’s passion and realized through the use of cutting edge technology. Established in 2002, BENT specializes in wildly creative spots and videos that range from the frenetic to the deeply moving. Saturday Night Live, Coca-Cola, Lux Soap, Aflac, Budweiser, Guitar Hero, HP, PBS, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Live Earth, and film directors Todd Haynes and Gus Van Sant, are just a few of the high-profile clients that have called on BENT for some of their quirky, highly-original work.

CREDITS
Client: Diet Dr Pepper
Spots Title: I Exist
Air Date: September 2009

Agency: Deutsch, LA
President/Chief Creative Officer: Eric Hirshberg
SVP/Group CD: Chris Ribiero
Sr. Designer: Marius Gedgaudas
Sr. Producer: Tracy Jones
SVP, Group Account Director: Valencia Gayles
Account Director: Helen Murray

Prod Co: Bent Image Lab/Portland, OR
Director: Ken Lidster
EP: Ray Di Carlo
Sr Producer: Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Kara Place
Coordinator: Ryan Shanholtzer
DP: Mark Eifert
Product Shoot DP: Jay Wesley Jones
Stage Manager: Jim Birkett
AD/Set Designer: Curt Enderle
Art Department Director: Solomon Burbridge
Art Department: Greg Fosmire, Marty Easterday, Kimi Kaplowitz, Mary Blankenburg, Daniel Miller, Huy Vu, Jayme Hansen, Kate Fenker, Brandi Cochrane
Storyboard Artist: Steve Hess
Character Design: Brett Superstar, Steve Hess, Monique Ligons, Colin Batty
Principal Animators: Jerold Howard, Jeff Riley
Editorial Supervisor: JD Dawson
After Effects Supervisor: Tarn Fox
Composite Artists (After Effects): Orland Nutt, Brian Kinkley, Jay Twenge, Sean Saul
Composite Artists (2D): Traci Cook

Post Prod: Downstream/Portland, OR
Colorist: Jim Barrett

RELATED LINKS
www.bentimagelab.com

Popularity: 28% [?]

View Slideshow

Escamotage is an exciting live action short film created by Canadian director Patrick Kalyn. Inspired by the Bourne series of films, Escamotage tells the story of a violent man from a world of organised crime, who finds an unexpected love.

Nominated for Best First Film at the 2008 South Africa International Film Festival, Escamotage is an impressive primary film venture, even more so for a production without a budget.

Originally trained in 3D animation, Patrick Kalyn gravitated towards live action films after working on the blockbuster movies I, Robot and King Kong. During his time working at Weta Digital in New Zealand, the inception of his first live action film began to develop.

According to Patrick the original concept for Escamotage stemmed from the idea of a man, on a bench, on a beach. “I thought, what would happen if another man joined him on that bench; and was told something horrible?” With the image of a climatic car explosion in his head, Kalyn said the scenes almost began to write themselves.

The non-existent budget presented many obstacles including the necessity to write the script around locations that could be used for free. Fortunately the New Zealand countryside provided a pool of incredible environments that became the arresting backdrop to much of the film.

Patrick recruited a budding actor from a local drama college in Wellington for the lead role, and coerced various friends and colleagues into playing the remaining characters. Not knowing someone who could shoot the movie, Kalyn bought a consumer HD camera and taught himself.

As Kalyn was busy working full time, the film could only be shot on weekends; with rehearsals, prop building and shot list preparation being done mid week around work hours. Filming for Escamotage was finally completed after seven weekend shoots.

The footage was cut in Avid Media Composer on a home PC. Once shots were colour matched, targa file sequences of all the visual effects shots were made. The vfx shots ranged from digital bullet casings, muzzle flashes and smoke, bullet squibs hitting the car and finally the car explosion.
The shell casings were modelled in Maya and then eye ball animated per shot, due to a lack of a 3D track, and muzzle flashes were painted in Photoshop.

For the car explosion, plates were shot with and without the car and the beauty plate was used to project the car onto a 3D model that was built based on blueprints of the Audi RS4. The 3D model allowed Kalyn to have the car react from the blast of the explosion; then it was all assembled and comped onto the clean plate along with digital debris that was animated and rendered in Maya.

Scenes were graded with Media Composers color correct tools to create the specific mood that was required. Kalyn remarkably also created the sound design and original score for Escamotage, eventually spending over a year working on the film, from concept to completion.

Escamotage, (from the French word meaning ’subterfuge’), is fast paced, brutal and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end credits.

CGNews is pleased to announce that our sister site Sputnik7.com, will be screening Escamotage this forthcoming November 2009. Sputnik7.com is an independent film website dedicated to showcasing broadband content for today’s digital marketplace. Sputnik7.com is part of the CGNews Network.

Cast:
Hero – Logan Pithyou
Henchmano – Lance Louez
Ashman – Ashour David
Abram (Tank) – Phillip Reed
Mafioso – Richard Dexter

Credits:
Writer and Director – Patrick Kalyn
Assistant – Chris Moss
Fight Choreographer – Phil Reed
Auditions Coordinator – Nicky Muir
Original Score – Patrick Kalyn
SUV Radio Song – Mike Kalyn

Popularity: 31% [?]

View Slideshow

In creating ABC-TV’s new promo campaign for Season 9 of Dancing with the Stars, Leroy and Clarkson and Creative Director Daniel Fries drew inspiration from classic western duel sequences to create a sultry dance battle against a burning horizon.

Beautifully photographed and featuring some equally impressive 3D animation and compositing, Fries says the goal behind the campaign was to try and reach a younger, hipper audience without turning off their loyal viewers. That meant taking ballroom dance away from its theatrical roots and shaping it into something more cinematic.

”This is the biggest season ever of Dancing With the Stars — featuring a live premiere event, bigger stars on the show and a new elimination format — so ABC challenged us to take this campaign to a much more epic place,” Fries says. The Leroy and Clarkson creative team responded with the Duel in the Desert — a trailer-like promo that captures the scale and drama they were looking for.

Set to a dramatic score by music house Musikvergnuegen, Hollywood, CA, the spot begins with a shot of a brilliant sunset and a slow motion shot of a silhouetted man and woman strolling confidently toward the camera. Their destination: a shiny black stage, surrounded by huge LED screens, scaffolding and a cheering audience of thousands. As the silhouetted couple takes the stage, we see other couples size them up warily.

Suddenly the competition begins and the couples exhibit their best moves. Using a variety of lenses, frame rates and tracking shots, Fries’ camera captures all the sultry moves in vibrant 35 mm detail. As 3D animated embers cascade on the LED screens, the spot comes to a climatic end with the woman in red hoisting the coveted trophy high above her head.

For Fries, one of the primary challenges was dealing with the environmental conditions — namely shooting physically demanding choreography under a 110-degree desert sun on a lit, black stage. ”It was important that we minimize everyone’s time out in the sun,” Fries said. ”We had to be very economical in terms of how we used the talent so they would last the entire day.”

Equally important were the visual effects, which included the 3D animated LED screens and scaffolding. These are also used throughout the season in a comprehensive toolkit that carries the look and feel for episodic promos.

”I didn’t want this to feel too theatrical and synchronized like a musical,” Fries says, ”we wanted it to feel raw and explosive. That gave us the emotion and action of a more cinematic style.”

Fries adds, ”This was one of those projects where every facet of Leroy and Clarkson was tested — from creating the concept to mounting a complex live action production through the intricate post process. And all of this for one of the biggest shows on television.”

Based on the response from ABC — who have made the promos and graphics a key part of the Dancing With The Stars website as well — it’s clear this promo campaign is as big a hit as the show itself.

About Leroy and Clarkson:
Leroy and Clarkson is a creative agency, a design studio and a production company fluent in brand identity, promotional campaigns and graphic design. Leroy and Clarkson consists of writers, designers, directors, editors and producers with the ability to develop and execute everything from simple title design to large-scale, brand-level campaign work. Leroy and Clarkson clients are networks, agencies and filmmakers looking to take their projects in new, culturally informed and creative directions.

Creative Credits
Client: ABC-TV
Project: Dancing With The Starts promo campaign/graphic toolkit

Production/Design Post: Leroy and Clarkson, New York
Creative Director: Daniel Fries
Executive Producer: Susie Shuttleworth

Related Links
leroyandclarkson.com
abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars

Popularity: 16% [?]

View Slideshow

The Mill has teamed up with Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam and Knucklehead and has created an epic 120 second spot for the October 2nd international release of EA Games’ FIFA Soccer 10 computer game. Featuring some of the world’s leading players including Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Barcelona’s Xavi and Real Madrid’s Benzema, the ad kicks off a global adventure that sees gamers and footballers from around the world clamouring to play the new game.

From Tokyo, to New York, crowds of players young and old assemble around screens to make their debut on the pitch for their favourite team. As the drama and excitement builds to kick off, a colourful carnival atmosphere erupts, uniting people across the planet.

Rich Roberts, Lead Flame at The Mill explains: “The ad uses a combination of stock footage, live action, game footage and 3D elements. One of The Mill’s first key challenges was to capture the right gaming footage for inclusion in the spot, so expert gamers were asked to play the game to produce the right moves which were then recorded on to HD and edited into the final ad”.

He added: “To create the impressive city and global backdrops, matte paintings were combined with stock footage to extend the cityscapes and augment the stock shots and achieve the ad’s epic sense of scale. Matte paintings were also used for the stadium shots, which were then populated with Massive crowd simulation.”

Amongst the many 3D elements in the spot, were the hundreds of CG footballs which can be seen tumbling out of a football net; footballs floating in the sea and the enormous hot air balloon football in the final scene. The Mill also filled the many screens throughout the spot with game footage as well as cleaning up several shots and removing branding from stock footage. A final grade was applied to bring together and seamlessly blend the multiple media types.

CREDITS

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam
Creative: Rick Chant
Producer: Cat Reynolds
Agency Post Producer: Nickie Stevens

Production Company: Knucklehead
Director: Johnny Green
DP: Joost van Gelder
Producer: Matthew Brown

Editing Company: Work Post
Editor: Neil Smith
Assistant Editor: Ben Jordan

Post Production: The Mill
Producer: Lucy Reid
Colourist: Adam Scott, Mick Vincent
Shoot Supervisors: Rich Roberts, Jimmy Kiddell
Lead Flame: Rich Roberts
Flame Assist: Adam Lambert
Smoke: James Pratt
Lead 3D: Juan Brockhaus
3D: Ed Shires, Craig Crane
Matte Painting: Dave Gibbons
Kit: Baselight, Flame, XSI, Massive

RELATED LINKS & SOURCES

www.themill.com
www.wk.com

Popularity: 33% [?]

View Slideshow