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Blind ECD Chris Do completed dazzling, powerfully symbolic typography on a PSA for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The :30, shot by Go Film’s Andrews Jenkins for agency Ground Zero, is a stinging portrayal of teenage debauchery that required multilayered yet simple on-screen messaging to educate about teen drug use.

Party At Troy’s is set at a raucous house party stuffed with teens in dingy, smoke-filled rooms, teetering about, alcohol in hand or slouched over grimy tables divvying up prescription pills. A shaky handheld camera captures the spiraling chaos of the event. Do’s team constructed three lines of incisive typography that are transposed over the scenes in turn.

The words make up the rash justifications of teenagers spiraling into drug abuse, while the letters in each statement are comprised of the objects of vice and wobble like the stumbling teenagers, showing the inherent irony and tragedy of their rash thinking. “HOW BAD CAN IT BE?” offers one line of typography strung together with hazy cigarette smoke that dissolves and wafts off the screen. “TECHNICALLY WE’RE LEGAL,” proclaims the next message, the text a montage of prescription pills. “YOU CAN TRUST HIM,” screams the final bit, the letters formed of wavering pools of beer hovering over a teenage boy leading an obviously annihilated girl into an upstairs bedroom.

“The challenge here was the design and rendering of the type – it needed to feel organic yet be legible for the short amount of time it was onscreen,” noted Do. “We considered everything from thought bubbles hovering over the characters to two-dimensional letterforms tracked in to treating the type like reflective tape on road signs. Finding the perfect solution was no easy task. Luckily we had a very trusting relationship with the agency and we worked closely with them to find the best possible solution.”

“It’s often challenging to work on PSAs because, despite the low-budgets or pro-bono aspect, the standards of excellence are usually higher than with a traditional spot, since no one gets involved in a PSA to do average work,” noted Blind EP David Kleinman. “But we treated it as an opportunity to go and explore, and we challenged one another internally to come up with something really cool and creative. This also validates the notion that some of the best creative work comes from jobs with challenging budgets.”

About Blind
Blind, a multi-disciplinary design, motion graphics, animation, visual effects, live-action, editorial, print and broadcast design studio with offices in Santa Monica and NYC, taps into diverse intellectual and creative resources to come up with compelling results. Since 1995, Blind has been pushing beyond the expected, offering clients a new way to see with award-winning design. A few things remain constant amidst this design/production powerhouse’s constant drive to reinvent itself: the abilities to engender surprise and produce projects from conception to reality.

Blind’s creative team has built an uncommon level of respect in the advertising and entertainment communities via cutting-edge campaigns for brands such as Xbox, Showtime, Bright House Networks, DirecTV, OppenheimerFunds, McDonald’s, Scion, and recording artists including Gnarls Barkley, The Raveonettes and Justin Timberlake to name a few.

CREDITS
Client: PDFA
Spots Title: Party At Troy’s
Air Date: November 2008

Agency: Ground Zero
Creative Director: Curt Detweiler
Director of Integrated Production: Randy Morton
Art Directors: Mike Bokman, Emily McDowell
Copywriters: Dan McCormack, Jason Rappaport

Prod Company: Go Film
Director: Andrews Jenkins
EP: Gary Rose
Line Producer: Adam Gross

Editorial: Cut & Run
Editor: Dan Sweitlik
Producer: Chris Girard

Post/Effects: Blind
Executive Creative Director: Chris Do
Exec. Producer: Dave Kleinman
Producer: Dana Vaden
Head of Production: Amy Knerl
Designers: Lawrence Wyatt, Jason Kim, Chris Do
Lead Animator: Lawrence Wyatt
3D Animator(s): Chris O’Neill, Ehren Addis
Compositor: Lawrence Wyatt

Music: Ashe and Spencer

RELATED LINKS
www.blind.com

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Now you can Play. Create. Share. Everywhere with Little BIG Planet PSP … Superfad believe the PSP strap line to be a great modus operandi for life and applied it when creating this new 15 second spot.
Superfad took special care and pride in bringing Sack Boy to animated life in their latest project for Little BIG Planet for PSP and agency Deutsch. The commercial sees Sack Boy in a children’s playground having fun with a virtual ball and ghetto blaster on the end of a kite string.

Superfad is a brand-driven design and live action production company. A collective of designers, directors, animators, and artists; their mission is to see brands in unexpected ways and to express a brand’s voice in an undeniably original fashion.

Superfad’s work runs counter to the trend of design studios who present a singular house style. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and London, their work is informed by a wide array of cultural and intellectual influences. Fine art, science, math, and literature are fused with illustration, photography, and technology to produce stunningly original imagery.

Superfad was founded in 2001 and has produced award-winning work for many of the most respected brands worldwide. Honda, Sony, Target, Adidas, and AT&T are just a few of the companies who have turned to Superfad for inspired branding.

CREDITS
Client: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Title/Length: Little Big Planet PSP “Bricks” :15
Airdate: November 13. 2009

Agency: Deutsch
President/Chief Creative Officer: Eric Hirshberg Group Creative Directors: Jason Elm, Michael Bryce Senior Copywriter: Jeff Candido Senior Art Director: Bernie O’Dowd SVP/Director of Broadcast Production: Vic Palumbo SVP/Executive Producer: Victoria Guenier
Producer: Todd Krolczyk
SVP, Group Account Director: John McGonigle Account Executive: Leigh McCarthy

Production / Editorial / Animation Company: Superfad Executive Producer: Kevin Batten
Director: Superfad/Kevin Lau
DP: Eric Steelberg
Post Producer: Danielle Hazan
Art Director: Kevin Lau
Character Animator: Ian Mankowski
3D Modeler: Tim Kadawaki
3D Animator: Carlos Florez
Technical Director: Henry Foster
Compositor: Jared Sandrew
Flame: John Shirley
Editor: Carsten Becker

Related Links
www.superfad.com

Popularity: 23% [?]

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The characters shine in a hilarious new stop-motion spot for Diet Dr Pepper, part of the soft drink brand’s Unbelievable campaign directed by Bent Image Lab’s Ken Lidster in conjunction with Deutsch/LA.

Contest is a follow-up to the first spot done in the 50s-inspired animation style, which premiered last month. The :15 spot returns to the “I Exist!” support group for mythical characters in the middle of a competition to decide who is the most unbelievable figure in the room: Santa Claus or the guy who delivers a “satisfying diet drink.” As the characters, Sasquatch, Alien, Leprechaun and the Tooth Fairy look on, the Easter Bunny declares a tie between the nervous contestants.

“There’s only one way to settle this!” the Tooth Fairy exclaims, pouring a glass of Diet Dr Pepper for Sasquatch. Just watch it to find out what Sasquatch thinks.

“It’s been a lot of fun to develop these characters”, Lidster said. “We have worked very closely with Deutsch/LA to develop these well known celebrities. So when creative director Chris Ribeiro gave us another great script, we felt that we really knew the cast’s personalities, exactly what they would do. Animating the subtle expressions that make them so real came naturally. The characters really took on lives of their own.”

“The support group is just a brilliant setting,” Lidster said. “It allows us to find out what really makes some of the world’s most beloved mythical characters tick. It’s clear they’ve needed an outlet for their existential fears for some time, and we hope to keep the ‘I Exist!’ group going long enough to help them out.”

Bent created duplicates of the sets and triples of the nine-inch-high characters to streamline production. They then shot the stop-motion on high-resolution 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.

“You can really see Ken’s mastery of character development here with all the non-verbals going on,” said Bent Partner/EP Ray Di Carlo. “The whole Bent team’s attention to subtle detail helped make this animation so much fun. But it all starts with a great idea and a funny script to play off of. On this project the agency provided both. We’re very happy to have such a creative working relationship with Deutsch.”

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. BENT’s long list of spots, music videos, animated films and promos has earned impressive recognition from top film festivals and industry shows, including SXSW, the Clios, Cannes, Sundance, the Chicago Film Festival, AICP/MoMA, the Rosey awards, the Broadcast Design Awards, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival.

The Creds:
Client: Diet Dr Pepper
Spot Title: Unbelievable – Contest
Air Date: November 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

Production Co: Bent Image Lab, Portland, OR
Director: Ken Lidster
Executive Producer: Ray Di Carlo
Senior Producer: Tsui Ling Toomer
Producer: Kara Place
Coordinator: Ryan Shanholtzer
Director of Photography: Mark Eifert
Product Shoot Director of Photography: Jay Wesley Jones
Stage Manager: Jim Birkett
Art Director/ 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
Composite Artists (2D): Traci Cook

Post Production Co: Mission Control, Portland, OR
Colorist: Mike Quinn

Audio Post: Lime Studios

RELATED LINKS:
www.bentimagelab.com

Popularity: 19% [?]

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Prime Focus VFX, formerly Frantic Films VFX, has completed 175 visual effects shots for the Summit Entertainment release, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” directed by Chris Weitz. Prime Focus contributed a majority of the film’s most frequently featured visual effects, including CG water, atmospherics, CG matte painting and environment work, and the “Diamond Skin” effect on Edward and the other vampire characters. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is based on the popular series of novels by Stephenie Meyer.

Prime Focus’ newly expanded Vancouver studio, which has become the VFX hub for the company’s North American operations, handled the bulk of the work on “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” which was shot on location in British Columbia. Key effects included creating apparitions of the Edward Cullen character and custom designing the “Diamond Edward” effect, whereby Cullen’s skin sparkles when coming into contact with sunlight.

Director Chris Weitz and his Visual Effects Producer Susan MacLeod tasked Prime Focus with evolving this signature Diamond Skin effect so that Edward’s skin refracted light as if diamonds were embedded under his skin.

The Prime Focus team, led by Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Pascarelli, went through extensive look development to achieve this effect, and used as its inspiration Greek Thassos marble, a very white, translucent material with flecks that reflect light very efficiently. The team even had a slab at the office for the CG artists to use as reference.

“Creating the diamond skin effect turned out to be a very rewarding experience.” said Pascarelli. “The effect appears many times throughout the film in several very different scenarios. It was challenging because the diamond effect appears in sunlight, whenever Edward’s already very pale skin is lit by sun, and on top of all of that brightness, there needs to be a convincing diamond-like sparkle. Film doesn’t really have enough brightness range to do this, so we had to resort to some trickery, such as lens effects, flares and light rays to give the feeling of super-bright glimmer.

In addition to all of that, we needed to show the skin having a translucent glow. There was a very delicate balance of the elements that make up the effect. We used 3D particle geometry dispersed over a CG model of Edwards’ head to reflect several artificial environments in order to create the sparkles and rays. Chris and Susan loved what we came up with very early in the process, which ended up being one of the happy surprises during production.”

Prime Focus’ Vancouver studio also collaborated with its Digital Matte Painting department in Los Angeles (headed by Ken Nakada) on recreating the movie’s Forks High School, as well as craggy cliffs overlooking the ocean and other 100-percent CG environments depicting the movie’s Washington State locale. Prime Focus also contributed CG water for multiple scenes and two elaborate time passage sequences featuring the Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) character in complicated multipart motion control shots.

For the cliff scenes, Nakada and his team designed the entire landscape using several locations in Vancouver’s Whytecliff Park as reference material. The team also provided on-set VFX supervision for MacLeod and Weitz on a greenscreen shoot at Vancouver Film Studios of a stuntman jumping 70 feet off a tower as a camera rig does a 270-degree tilt, following him from the top of the cliff until he hits water. Additionally, Prime Focus created several digital doubles and did face replacement for the actors jumping off the cliff.

Overall, a team of 45 across Prime Focus Vancouver and Los Angeles were brought onto “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” Prime Focus’ key software packages included Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Mudbox for 3D modeling, eyeon Fusion for compositing, Prime Focus Software’s Krakatoa for particle rendering, Prime Focus Software’s Flood and Flood: Surf for fluid simulation.

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.

RELATED LINKS:
www.primefocusworld.com
www.newmoonthemovie.com/worldoftwilight

Popularity: 21% [?]

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MAXON Computer has announced that motion design studio Monkeyhead have leveraged MAXON’s award-winning CINEMA 4D 3D software application, to create a bleeding-edge motion graphics-intensive 30-second teaser graphic spot and an entire promo graphic package for HBO’s highly anticipated The 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert. The promos are currently airing on HBO and show viewers the names of the legendary rock stars that will be performing during the concert special and demonstrate the advanced functionality in CINEMA 4D with a composite of highly stylized, 3D photo real images that convey the massive scale of the all-star line-up.

The 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame Concert airs as a four-hour special and features performances from musical legends such as Aretha Franklin, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Sting, Simon & Garfunkel, Jeff Beck, and many others. The actual historic Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concerts took place over two nights at Madison Square Garden, on October 29th and 30th. HBO is producing and airing the broadcast on November 29th about the two night concerts as a tribute to the legendary musical extravaganza.

Josh Sahley, founder and creative director at Monkeyhead, commented that HBO tasked the studio with creating promos that would amplify viewer interest in one of the greatest concert gatherings of the world’s most exalted rock stars ever assembled – many of them Hall of Fame inductees. HBO also informed Sahley that the use of existing photographs, video footage or music cues of any of the performers was not permissible. The studio was given three weeks to complete the project.

“Monkeyhead was thrilled to take on the creative challenge of emphasizing the individual talents of so many of the world’s greatest rock icons in a fresh and innovative way without relying on existing footage or music. We came up with the idea of finding one instrument-related image that personified each artist as a springboard to create a motion graphics treatment,” explained Sahley.

“CINEMA 4D is our core 3D software package and was used throughout every aspect of the campaign’s content creation process. We especially appreciate its ease-of-use for meeting a wide range of motion graphics needs – from photo real product and location projects to kid-friendly toon shaded designs. We knew we could rely on the MoGraph and NetRender modules for the Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concerts, and did so, pushing both to the maximum since they make typically complicated procedures simple and stress-free while providing us with endless creative and time-saving options.”

“We are delighted that CINEMA 4D played a central role in providing Monkeyhead with flexible and reliable tools to bring its creative vision to this extraordinarily high profile project to life,” says Paul Babb, President and CEO, MAXON US. “The team at Monkeyhead continues to push the creative boundaries of the software in new directions even when they are working against tight deadlines challenges – a testament to the power and stability of our software.”

The creative team at Monkeyhead began the creative process by doing research on each of the performers to identify appropriate images and work up storyboard concepts. They then “jumped into” CINEMA 4D to explore camera moves and model all the instruments. “We decided to build all the models as photo-real 3D images in CINEMA 4D to realistically and meticulously capture the unique characteristics of each artist ranging from Aretha Franklin’s vintage vocal microphones, the beat-up grain pattern on Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen’s wood Telecaster guitar, U2’s drum set layout, a piano keyboard to represent Stevie Wonder, and much more. In addition, we created a graphic ‘expression mark’ to punctuate the explosive line-up represented by a photo-real guitar bursting into flames.

“The functionality in the MoGraph module offers an incredibly dynamic range of tools to create motion graphics and advanced features like global illumination and caustics further allowed us to achieve the desired degree of realism. When we showed HBO the final spot they asked which images we created and which ones were pulled from existing sources because they couldn’t believe the photo-realistic quality we had accomplished,” added Sahley.

Once the look and feel of the shots were established, Monkeyhead dropped them into CINEMA 4D’s NET Render for multi-pass rendering on 8-core Mac Pro’s and 8-core Mac’s dual-booted with PC, and then brought them into Adobe After Effects for final compositing. This process was repeated for each musical element. “Unlike other packages that claim they have networked rendering, CINEMA 4D’s NET Render was extremely simple to set up and gave us enhanced flexibility and creative control to experiment with transitions and to achieve a stylized, 3D photo-realistic film-like look. This, coupled with its seamless integration into other third party apps was also a big part of the reason we were able to complete the project within the short deadline.”

Monkeyhead has recently used CINEMA 4D to complete several other notable projects, including design oriented work for Red Bull, photo real commercial work for Ghiradelli and photo-real special effects in the theatrically released Eschelon Conspiracy.

About Monkeyhead
Monkeyhead was launched in Santa Monica, California, in 2006 by well known Los Angeles motion design artist and creative director Josh Sahley. By delivering consistently innovative projects and focusing on total dedication to an A-list roster of ad agency and consumer brand clientele, the company quickly built a solid track record and reputation. Since moving to a larger studio in Culver City in 2008, under Sahley’s creative direction and through his management approach pairing specific artistic teams for individual assignments, Monkeyhead continues to evolve its style in delivering groundbreaking commercial spots, broadcast show packages, branded entertainment, movie/TV titles and visual effects sequences. Additional information on Monkeyhead is available at www.monkeyhead.com.

About MAXON Computer
MAXON Computer is a developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D software products have been used extensively to help create everything from stunning visual effects in top feature films, TV shows and commercials, cutting-edge game cinematics for AAA games, as well for medical illustration, architectural and industrial design applications. MAXON has offices in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, France and Japan. MAXON products are available directly from the Website and its worldwide distribution channel. Specially priced learning editions of the company’s software solutions are also made available to educational institutions. For additional information on MAXON visit www.maxon.net.

Popularity: 17% [?]

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Boutique visual effects studio Ingenuity Engine has collaborated once again with director Joseph Kahn on a futuristic new music video for R&B singer Chris Brown’s track “I Can Transform Ya,” the first single off his forthcoming album Graffiti (due Dec. 8). Ingenuity Engine created a VFX-intensive and hyper-stylized world for the video, which premiered Oct. 27th and features Chris Brown, producer Swizz Beatz and rapper Lil Wayne as they deconstruct and shapeshift into sports cars, armored tanks, helicopters and other objects.

Ingenuity Engine has had a longstanding relationship with Kahn, having previously worked with the director on the Chris Brown music videos “Crawl” (the next single off Graffiti) and “Forever,” as well as numerous television commercial projects. Ingenuity Engine’s ability to work in “short hand” with the director, along with the nimbleness and multi-disciplinary make-up of its team, enabled the studio to complete the music video with a team of 10 in just a week-and-a-half from start to finish.

The “I Can Transform Ya” music video opens as a jet-black sports car careens across the screen. It morphs into Chris Brown, armed with a can of spray paint and tagging the name of the title track on the wall. Set against an entirely all-white backdrop, the clip highlights Brown’s dance moves, which he performs alongside a ninja-outfitted crew.

Ingenuity Engine contributed numerous signature effects, including shape-shifting Brown and company into tanks, motorcycles and other fantasy toys, which the team modeled and animated by hand in Autodesk 3ds Max, building a particle system comprised of engine parts to fill the interiors of the various vehicles. Ingenuity Engine also custom developed a transition effect in which the performers morph into clusters of CGI ribbons, and contributed CG extensions to a robot-enhanced suit worn by a voluptuous biker babe.

“The music video production industry today requires a creative team to be agile because our turnaround times are shrinking down to mere days,” said David Lebensfeld, founder and lead artist, Ingenuity Engine. “But we’re still held to high creative standards to produce engaging content that can live across MTV, YouTube and mobile devices. Fortunately, because we do a large volume of visual effects work for commercials, we’re able to apply those production-proven workflows to our music video projects. We’ve also culled together a very well rounded team that aren’t just 3D artists, but equally skilled compositors, animators and motion graphics artists.”

Ingenuity Engine used a software package consisting of Autodesk 3ds Max for 3D modeling, Prime Focus Software’s Krakatoa for particle rendering, with all compositing done in Nuke. In its first hour of release, the “I Can Transform Ya” music video was downloaded over 500 times and went on to be viewed over 750,000 times. It premiered Oct. 27th on MTV Hits, MTV Jams, and MTV.com. Ingenuity Engine is currently completing VFX work on Chris Brown’s “Crawl” music video, which is also directed by Kahn and is slated to premiere on Nov. 13th.

Ingenuity Engine is an award-winning visual effects boutique based in Hollywood, Calif. With a reputation for nimbleness and creative experimentation, Ingenuity Engine provides VFX and creative post for music videos, commercials, television episodics and feature film projects. The company works with directors including Paul Hunter, Francis Lawrence, Wayne Isham, Joseph Kahn, Marc Webb and Matthew Rolston on music videos for Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Green Day, Chris Brown, Weezer, Kiss and Madonna, and has been nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards. The company’s commercial projects include spots for Asics, Mazda, Travelers Insurance, Sears, Georgia State Lottery and Coca Cola’s Oasis.

Production Credits:
Title: “I Can Transform Ya” music video
Artist: Chris Brown
Label: Jive Records

Director: Joseph Kahn
Production Company: HSI Productions
Producer: MaryAnn Tanedo

Editor: Joseph Kahn

Visual Effects Company: Ingenuity Engine / Hollywood, CA Visual Effects Supervisor: David Lebensfeld Visual Effects Executive Producer: Matthew Poliquin VFX coordinator: Michael Lebensfeld Lead CG: Grant Miller Lead Compositor: Nicholas Sorenson CG Artist: Kris Cabrera
Compositor: Daniel Raschko
CG Artist: Tom Wilson
Animator: AJ Gillespie
Junior Compositor: Travis Button
Junior Compositor: Kyle Andal
Junior Compositor: Gerard Andal

Related Links:
www.ievfx.com
www.josephkahn.com

Popularity: 20% [?]

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Autodesk, Inc. has announced that DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. and Sony Pictures Imageworks are integrating Autodesk Mudbox software into their Linux-based production pipelines. Autodesk Consulting’s custom development team worked collaboratively with teams at Imageworks and DreamWorks to port the digital sculpting and texture painting software to the Linux platform. Mudbox for Linux is available through Autodesk Consulting services.

“Mudbox was first developed as an integral part of WETA Digital’s film production pipeline, putting the digital artist at the center of the software’s design process,” explained Dave Rhodes, Autodesk vice president, worldwide consulting services. “This enabled Mudbox to solve key production challenges that other applications weren’t addressing. It is an approach that Autodesk has remained faithful to by developing the Linux version in collaboration with some of our leading film clients.”

“The Linux port is an exciting and essential element of getting the Mudbox toolset integrated into our production pipeline at DreamWorks Animation,” said Ed Leonard, CTO at DreamWorks Animation. “We applaud our partners at Autodesk for their continual commitment to tool innovation and their support of Linux as a first rate platform for high end visual effects and animation.”

“Mudbox is a great tool for us in that it can combine sculpting and texturing into a single workflow, which gives our artists more flexibility in how they approach creating the art for our films,” said Rob Bredow, CTO at Imageworks. “The Mudbox approach really fits into our overall strategy of letting our artists create art using multiple areas within our pipeline. Mudbox is more creatively satisfying and more efficient, allowing us to put more on the screen.”

Autodesk Consulting offers custom engineering, support and consulting operations serving the computer graphics industry. Drawing on extensive production knowledge, the group’s developers and consultants provide large feature film, visual effects and game development facilities with custom technology, pipeline extensions, asset management solutions, support and more.

“Cross-platform support is a key part of the Mudbox product strategy,” added Stig Gruman, Autodesk vice president, Digital Entertainment Group. “Earlier this year Autodesk shipped the first version of the software for the Apple Macintosh platform, and this development is a major step toward offering Linux support to artists working in feature film production.”

About Autodesk Mudbox
Autodesk Mudbox software is a digital sculpting and texture painting application that provides an organic, brush-based 3D modeling experience. Designed by professional artists, the software combines a highly intuitive user interface with a powerful creative toolset for creating ultra-realistic 3D characters, engaging environments and stylized props.

Mudbox software has been used on many digital entertainment projects, including “9,” “The Dark Knight” and “America’s Army 3.” Watch a short Mudbox demonstration video on Autodesk’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/autodesk. For detailed product information, visit www.autodesk.com/mudbox.

Availability
Autodesk Mudbox software is currently available in English on the Linux, Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Mudbox for the Linux platform licenses can be purchased only through a custom contract with Autodesk Consulting. Mudbox for Windows and Macintosh licenses can be purchased through Autodesk software resellers, at the Autodesk online store and on Amazon.com.

About DreamWorks and Imageworks
DreamWorks Animation is a world-class animation company, renowned for creating hit animated films, such as “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “Shrek.” Sony Pictures Imageworks is a leading, state-of-the-art visual effects and character animation company, acclaimed for its work on numerous blockbuster movies, including “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Spider-Man” and “Watchmen.”

About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software to help customers experience their ideas digitally before they are built. Fortune 100 companies Ø as well as the last 14 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects Ø use Autodesk software tools to design, visualize and simulate their ideas to save time and money, enhance quality, and foster innovation for competitive advantage.

www.autodesk.com

Popularity: 14% [?]

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Asylum’s VFX team in collaboration with mcgarry bowen and MJZ’s Rupert Sanders recently completed work on a spectacular spot launching Verizon’s highly anticipated Droid smartphone. The: 60 features incredible CG environments that showcase Asylum’s incomparable expertise in creating realistic FX, this time embedded within a suspenseful and visually stunning narrative.

Stealth begins with a squadron of stealth bombers thundering through a cloud-filled sky and launching a salvo of small pods toward earth, a beautiful scene rendered entirely in CGI. From the ground bewildered ranchers, lumberjacks, fishermen, and others watch the pods simmer through the sky, CGI smoke trails marking their path.

The mountaintops, prairies, and mid-ocean landscape that the observers watch from are stunning panoramas created in Maya, Terragen, Renderman, BodyPaint, and others, and then composited in Nuke using multiple floating-point, linear light passes.

The pods explode into the ground – an effect achieved with a combination of live action and Flame composite. The contraptions survive in one piece, however, and when the live-action pod spins open, a shimmering CGI backdrop outlines the glowing Droid phone, also done in CGI.

Asylum packaged all of this footage into a custom interface that controlled the comp process and guaranteed a consistent look from shot to shot. They created an additional custom UI tool in Nuke to create the lens flare and lighting effects that incorporate realistic camera motion, reflections, and light leaks. Previsualization was built as a combination of 3D animation and reference footage taken from multiple sources.

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.

CREDITS
Client: Verizon
Spots Title: Stealth
Air Date: November 2009

Agency: mcgarrybowen, New York
Executive Creative Director: Mark Koelfgen
Executive Creative Director: Warren Eakins
Copywriter: Tiffany Smith
Art Director: Michael Cannova
Head of Broadcast Production: Rosanne Horn

Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles
Director: Rupert Sanders
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Director of Photography: Alwin Kuchler
Line Producer: Laurie Boccaccio

Editorial Company: Spot Welders
Editor: Neil Smith

Post/Effects: Asylum
Visual Effects Supervisor: Robert Moggach
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Jason Cohon
Coordinator: Diana Cheng
CG Producer: Jeff Werner
CG Supervisor: Jens Zalzala
Compositing Lead: Miles Essmiller
Lead Modeler: Greg Stuhl

Music: Q Department
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Sound Design Company: Trinitite Studios

Mix: Lime
Mixer: Loren Silber

RELATED LINKS
www.asylumfx.com

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Digital Domain forces viewers to stare deep into the faces of the freshly deceased in “Eyes,” a television commercial for “Assassin’s Creed II,” the new third-person action-adventure video game from Ubisoft. Directed by Andrew Douglas of Anonymous Content via ad agency Cutwater, the spot demonstrates Digital Domain’s expertise in working with the contours of the human face.

But instead of creating a fully computer-generated version à la The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Digital Domain applied digital production techniques to give the live-action actors a haunting, hyper-photorealistic quality. “Eyes” breaks Nov. 9, 2009.

In “Eyes,” a bell tolls as the spot opens on a close-up shot of a pair of very still and vacant eyes. The camera pulls out to reveal that they belong to the macabre face of a recently slain medieval soldier. Other crime scenes follow, showing the just-murdered faces of corrupt noblemen, criminals and other victims. The final face is that of a cloaked man, his skin dewy and his eyes moist. The Assassin Ezio, who is the main character in the game, blinks and turns, taking viewers seamlessly into Assassin’s Creed II game footage.

“Our goal was both to give Douglas’ shot footage a hyper-photorealistic treatment, but to also make the actors appear so believably dead, it really takes the viewer aback,” said Vernon Wilbert, visual effects supervisor, Digital Domain.

“We found this aesthetic by re-lighting and adjusting the live-action faces, treating them so they had a waxy, plastic and synthetic feel to them, while retaining the essence of the photography. From our experience creating digital human characters, we built an intimate knowledge of how light affects human skin. What’s interesting about this project is, we reversed it, using digital tools to relight the skin to take away the appearance of life.”

For an even more unsettling effect, Digital Domain meticulously extracted all movement from the actors such as twitches and blinking, while digitally adding in atmospheric movement like candlelight flickers, water ripples and flies buzzing about.

To achieve the closing shot of the actor playing Ezio as he seamlessly morphs from live-action into an in-game character, Wilbert and his team walked the director through a virtual set within the game, as Douglas evaluated lighting and scenery as if doing a virtual location scout.

“It’s interesting how the same issues that happen on a live-action set can also happen within the game engine,” added Wilbert. “The light in the video game would change, or we’d have to wait for the moon to come back into scene, or the shadows would shift. Andrew Douglas was a great collaborator, and was completely at ease directing action in the virtual world. This converging of the techniques and tools of moviemaking and gaming is something we’re going to be seeing a lot of in the future.”

Digital Domain is an Academy Award®-winning digital production studio with a reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual effects for 75+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12 billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for Digital Domain’s advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games, advertising and the web closer together.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

CLIENT: Ubisoft

PRODUCT: Assassin’s Creed II
“Eyes” :30 AIRDATE: 11/09/09
“Eyes Extended” ::60 AIR DATE: 11/09/09

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Cutwater SF
Chief Creative Officer: Chuck McBride
Director of Broadcast: Jennifer Golub
Interactive Creative Director: Fabio Costa
Art Director: Jay Lorenzini
Copywriter: Eric Boyd
Agency Producer: Bill Spangler
Account Manager: Jason Bedecarre

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Anonymous Content
Director: Andrew Douglas
Executive Producer: Dave Morrison
Head of Production: Sue Ellen Clair
Producer: Aris McGarry

ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc./Venice, CA
President of Commercials, Executive Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Vernon Wilbert
Visual Effects Producer: Melanie La Rue
Coordinator: Nathan Bayne
Coordinator: William Lemmon
Integration: Scott Gsop Edelstein
Senior Flame Artist: Jeff Heusser
Senior Flame Artist: Brad Scott
Junior Flame Artist: Matthew J.D. Bramante
Roto Artist: Hilery Johnson Copeland
Roto Artist: Maura Alvarez

EDITORIAL HOUSE: Final Cut
Editor: Nathan Petty
Executive Producer: Saima Awan
Producer: Jennifer Miller
MUSIC / SOUND HOUSE DESIGN: Elias Arts
Creative Director/Composer: Jonathan Elias
Creative Director: Dave Gold
Composers: Kimo Kemp, Dave Wittman
Producer: Kala Sherman

AUDIO POST/MIX HOUSE: One Union Studios
Mixer: Eben Carr
Producer: Lauren Mask

RELATED LINKS:
www.digitaldomain.com

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Rhino Creative Director Vico Sharabani recently completed yet another close collaboration with the Snorri Bros., this time creating all the VFX for a carefully choreographed :30 promoting the new season of Starz’ acclaimed series, Crash. The unique spot captures Los Angeles through the lens of a camera continuously swinging across the cityscape, the masses jostling in slow motion before a backdrop of palm trees, mountains, construction cranes, and other iconic Southern California images.

The cast – including legendary actor Dennis Hopper – is shown mingling amidst this hoard in the hustling, deal-making, wild streets of Tinseltown. The spot concludes with the convergence of the main characters at center screen, where they appear poised to “crash” into one another, symbolizing the complex, intermingled maze that the characters live in.

To create a full portrait of the unhinged L.A. lifestyle that Crash portrays, Sharabani and the rest of the Rhino crew expertly stitched together a mosaic of characters that the Snorri Bros. shot on long lens against a green screen. Rhino deftly arranged these moving pieces so that the show’s stars mingle effortlessly with LA’s background masses while their individual stories move inexorably toward intersection.

Rhino then combined stills and live-action shots from all over the city to create an enormous, 100,000-pixel-long panorama of Los Angeles, against which they transposed the various characters in motion. The result is a seamless, detail-rich, 360-degree shot that seems to swivel over all of LA and the entirety of its shuffling life in one effortless motion. The crew also amped up the lighting to create an overly bright glare that perfectly communicates the atmosphere of walking through the steaming hot L.A. concrete jungle.

“The trick here was to capture the constant behind-the-scenes and in-the-streets action of Hollywood while simultaneously showing the countless fascinating stories behind that lifestyle, which is really the story of Crash,” said Sharabani. “So we had to balance the fast-paced camera movement with the intersection of the fascinating cast and the indescribable L.A. masses. All of this while capturing the exact mood of L.A., from the steaming weather to the every-man-for-himself realities of the entertainment industry. Luckily the Snorri Bros. are expert at exactly capturing the attitude and personality of each character through their motions alone.”

“We’ve worked with the Snorri Bros. on spots for Mercedes, Toyota, Subway and Dell over the past two years so we’re very familiar with one another,” said Rhino MD Rick Wagonheim. “We’re incredibly happy to have this successful ongoing collaboration with a team that’s so imaginative, diligent, and easy to work with.”

About Starz:
Starz Entertainment, LLC, is a premium movie service provider operating in the United States. It offers 16 movie channels including the flagship Starz® and Encore® brands with approximately 17.5 million and 31.5 million subscribers respectively. Starz Entertainment airs more than 1,000 movies per month across its pay TV channels and offers advanced services including Starz HD, Encore HD, Starz On Demand, Encore On Demand, MoviePlex On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore HD On Demand, MoviePlex HD On Demand, and Starz Play. Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) is an operating unit of Starz, LLC, which is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, and is attributed to Liberty Entertainment Group, a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation.

About Rhino:
Since its launch in 2000, Rhino has created award-winning visual effects, design, and animation for commercials, VFX for feature films, episodic television, webisodic mini-series, and videogame cinematics. The company’s principals and artists have also led the industry’s exploration into the boundless potential of branded digital content. By cultivating extensive relationships with key brands, advertising agencies, and film/TV studios, Rhino utilizes its creative directors and artists to develop and execute powerful branded entertainment to build both identity and awareness. The company’s principals include: CD/Director Vico Sharabani, CD/Director Harry Dorrington, CD/Director Natasha Saenko, COO/EP Camille Geier, Managing Director Rick Wagonheim, and CEO North America Zviah Eldar.

CREDITS
Spot: Starz Network Crash Promo
Airdate: October 2009

Agency: Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners
CD(s): Jon Goldberg, Chris Cereda
Account Director: Rachel Mahoney
Group Business Director: Cora Byrne
Account Executive: Amy Olsen
Producer: Sharon Harte
AP: Ali Wasserstein

Prod Company: The Cartel
Director: Snorri Bros
Director: Eidur Eysteinsson
Executive Producer: Faith Dektor
Executive Producer: Jeff Miller
Producer: Dave Bernstein

Post/Effects: Rhino
CD: Vico Sharabani
VFX Supervisor: Elad Offer
Producer: Linda Gallagher
COO/EP: Camille Geier
Managing Director: Rick Wagonheim
CEO: Zviah Eldar

RELATED LINKS
www.rhino-gravity.com

Popularity: 15% [?]

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