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A carefully orchestrated series of mysterious catastrophes is dragging Shanghai, China to the brink of ruin, and now the Army of Two must fight their way through ravaged city districts as they try to beat the odds and uncover the secret of the 40th Day.

Army of Two: The 40th Day has been built from the ground up with a focus on an incredible cooperative experience. The result is a bigger, better, more organic and immersive co-op experience that lets you put your best two-man tactics to use whenever and wherever you want.

US and Canadian based Zoic Studios recently produced some incredible animation for an adrenaline infused spot for EA’s third-person shooter Army of Two. The commercial shows two soldiers making a break from shelter in a building under immense fire from an oposing army. Using demolished concrete walls and a red car door for cover they manage to launch a rocket against their foes.

Zoic Studios
Zoic is an award-winning Digital Studio involved in producing lauded commercials and viral advertising as well as innovative content for episodic television, feature films and the gaming industry.

From visual effects, to live action production and specialty shooting, Zoic Studio’s imprint can be seen in such compelling entertainment as True Blood, Fringe and Dollhouse; spots for Mountain Dew, ESPN, Craftsman, HP and VW, as well as innovative projects for EA, Gamefly and Sony. Zoic Studios has offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. EA develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet.

In fiscal 2009, EA had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies, and three titles that each sold more than five million copies including FIFA 09, Madden NFL 09 and Need for Speed Undercover.

PROJECT CREDITS
Client: DRAFTFCB / EA
Air Date: January 2010
Title: Army of Two: The 40th Day – “Strobe”

Agency: DraftFCB
Art Director: Gregg Foster
Copywriter: Jeff White
Senior Producer: Mark Tobin
Creative Directors: Tony Vazquez & Colin McRae Hard of Production: Dan Watson

Animation & VFX Production: Zoic Studios Creative Director: Chris Jones Executive Producer: Aaron Sternlicht
Producer: Neil Ingram
Production Manager: Stephen Chiu
CG Supervisor: Andy Wilkoff
Editor: Paul Kumpata
Storyboards: Yori Mochizuki

Ripomatic/Storyboard Artists: Levi Ahmu & Dylan Ekren

Model/Texture Artists:
Adrian Gray
Shun Imaizumi
Dylan Ekren
Dustin Mellum
Maxx Burman
Joel Kittle
Chris Strauss

Rigging:
Scott Rosekrans
Karl Fornander

PreViz:
Kelvin Lee
Dustin Adair
Jeff Benoit

Animation:
Kelvin Lee
Dustin Adair

Lighting:
Andy Wilkoff
Adrian Gray
Chris Strauss
Dave Funston

Particles and FX:
Jason Mortimer (lead)
Jeff Benoit

Matte Painting:
Syd Dutton
Charles Bunnag

Compositing:
Jason Zimmerman (lead)
Colin Feist
Zach Zaubi
Levi Ahmu

Motion Capture Services provided by VICON House of Moves

RELATED LINKS
www.zoicstudios.com
www.ea.com/games

Sources
Hypeworld.com
Zoic Studios
Electronic Arts

Popularity: 9% [?]

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A new spot for the U.S. Census Bureau aimed specifically at the country’s growing Latino community began airing nationwide last week, with the goal of increasing the participation of Latin Americans in the 2010 Census. The colorful, warm and imaginative spot is a key component of an integrated campaign from GlobalHue Latino targeted to America’s Latino population, which consists of nearly 47 million people and comprises the country’s second largest (and fastest growing) ethnic group. Artfully combining live-action cinematography and stylized animation, the :30 “Community” spot showcases the full talents of the filmmakers from U.S. creative production company Shilo.

“After analyzing the results of the 2000 Census, it became very important to ensure that the voices of Latin Americans are heard loudly and clearly in 2010,” said Amany Mroueh, GlobalHue Latino’s creative director. “Knowing that participation determines how funds are allocated for public education, parks, and community and other vital public services, we partnered with Shilo to craft an artful and compelling film that would engage the hearts and minds of our audience.”

According to Shilo co-founder and creative director Jose Gomez, the agency’s Amany Mroueh, associate CD Felipe Godinez, senior copywriter Gerard Garolera and executive producer Rosa Matos provided a thoughtful script, where a young girl uses clay to create a community of her dreams, and a voiceover begins in Spanish, “Your daughter spent hours and hours designing the community of her dreams… You will be able to help make it a reality in about 10 minutes,” and ends with, “It’s in our hands. U.S. 2010 Census.”

“We loved the original idea and the metaphor of the census as clay in people’s hands,” Gomez explained. “To us, when you’re filling out a census form, you’re imagining what your community can be, and we wanted to infuse that sense of imagination into the spot. Everyone embraced that idea, and in the finished spot, the community the little girl creates is connected to her imagination through our visual storytelling.”

After casting Brianna Gonzalez as their talent, Gomez, Shilo’s project ACD Mike Slane, director of photography Martin Ahlgren and their team chose Gary’s Loft in Brooklyn as their film location. In constructing their set, they built a moveable wall that gave them flexible use of the loft’s natural light and existing room structures. The live-action cinematography was captured on 35mm film using the 435 Xtreme 35mm motion picture camera and an array of custom lenses.

Shilo’s West Coast executive producer Santino Sladavic detailed some the signature craftsmanship behind the design of the spot’s animated “clay” elements. “Jose is truly a master at character creation and animation, as we’ve all seen in many different types of projects over the years,” he said. “Before he personally designed the clay community with characters, vehicles, buildings, parks, clouds and stars, he put a lot of thought into every facet, and he set our entire team’s sights on developing a style of claymation that’s unique to Shilo.”

Indeed, Gomez, Slane, 3D lead Blake Guest and their fellow artists pursued that challenge with a specific mindset. “Our goal was to ensure that every character or clay creation reinforced Brianna’s charming, easy-going personality, so we did things like making the characters very simple in design,” said Gomez. “Then, based on our extensive motion studies of clay, we used actual fingerprints and impressions in the CG renderings to make them feel more real, while using subsurface scattering techniques to take the look closer to the border between reality and imagination. At the end of the day, we just hoped it would feel really warm and perfect, and that it would make people smile.”

Finally, the Shilo crew also praised the artists at Face the Music for their great musical contributions to the spot… and everyone at GlobalHue Latino and the U.S. Census Bureau for the trust and respect that made such a successful collaboration possible.

For the U.S. Census Bureau, leadership included COTR branch chief Kendall Johnson, program analyst Angelia Banks and Hispanic communications consultant Rafael Ignacio Maldonado. For Shilo, credits also include senior producer Hilary Wright, line producer John Gomez, coordinator Brittany Geber, editors Adam Bluming and Akira Chan, and artists Trentity De Witt, Zach Christian, Mason Stapleton, Colin Cromwell, Erik Anderson, Walter Schulz, Ed Laag, Tim Turner, and Nathan Davies. Dave Hussey of Company 3 served as the project’s colorist, and the final audio mix is courtesy of engineer Robert Sorrentino of Penny Lane Studios.

Shilo is an Emmy Award-winning creative production company representing a group of filmmakers led by directors Jose Gomez and Andre Stringer. Internationally known for creating original and commissioned work that is powerful, provocative and visually extraordinary, Shilo’s deeply held passions for design-infused storytelling and their innovative applications of live-action, design, and animation techniques deliver breakthrough experiences for screens large and small. From its studios in New York and La Jolla, California, where recent projects have spanned short films, commercials and music videos, Shilo has the capacity and experience to originate ideas and handle all aspects of production.

CREDITS:
U.S. 2010 Census “Community” Project Credits

Title: Census “Community”
Length: :30
Debut date: 1/18
Film locations/studios: Gary’s Loft, Brooklyn, NY.

Client: U.S. Census Bureau
COTR Branch Chief: Kendall Johnson
Program Analyst: Angelia Banks
Hispanic Communications Consultant: Rafael Ignacio Maldonado

Advertising Agency: GlobalHue Latino
Creative Director: Amany Mroueh
Assoc. CD: Felipe Godinez
Senior Copywriter: Gerard Garolera
Executive Producer: Rosa Matos

Director: Shilo
Production Company: Shilo
Creative Director: Jose Gomez
Associate CD: Mike Slane
Director of Photography: Martin Ahlgren
Executive Producer: Santino Sladavic
Senior Producer: Hilary Wright
Line Producer: John Gomez
Coordinator: Brittany Geber
Editors: Adam Bluming, Akira Chan
3D Lead: Blake Guest
3D Model/Animation: Blake Guest, Trentity De Witt, Zach Christian, Mason Stapleton, Colin Cromwell
3D Lighting/Rendering: Erik Anderson, Walter Schulz
Compositing: Mike Slane, Ed Laag
Rotoscoping/3D Tracking: Tim Turner, Nathan Davies

Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Dave Hussey

Music Company: Face The Music, Bicoastal
Composer: Face The Music
Executive Producer: Adam Joseph

Audio Mix: Penny Lane Studios
Engineer: Robert Sorrentino
Producer: Jackie Sparks

Principal Talent: Brianna Gonzalez

RELATED LINKS:
www.Shilo.tv
Shilo published its first book, We Make It Good, in 2007, and also curates the site www.WeMakeItGood.com.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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Nice Shoes, in conjunction with long-time clients Go Robot, Form, and Ogilvy & Mather NY, is in the midst of a six-spot campaign for online broker TD Ameritrade, its latest work in an ongoing relationship with the financial giant. The initial three :30s, starring Law & Order’s Sam Waterston, are examples of the kind of outstanding work that the reshaped Nice Shoes – which recently absorbed sister visual effects company Guava and design studio Freestyle Collective – will be putting out on a regular basis. The all-star team behind this project is Nice Shoes CD Aron Baxter, visual effects Artist Jason Farber, Colorist Chris Ryan and Producer Dave Moore. Baxter, an experienced visual effects supervising pro, oversaw the shoot for Form’s Gary McKendry.

“This was a collaboration on set right from the beginning. We’ve been working with Go Robot, Form and Ogilvy for years as Guava, so now, as the Nice Shoes visual effects division, we’re all totally comfortable working together and collaborating to find solutions as we go,” noted Baxter. “Plus we’ve forged such a great relationship with Ameritrade and understand their business so well that we are better positioned than anyone to inject the exact tone and atmosphere that Ameritrade required.”

Objectivity, Straightforward, and Green Shoots each take place on a pristine stage dominated by a simple, bold element representing one part of TD’s business philosophy – a giant “O” for “objectivity”; an equally large “S” for “straightforward”; an oversized photograph of green shoots, representing renewal – while Waterston trots back and forth extolling the company’s virtues with his reassuring oratory. The campaign’s final three spots will follow a similar format.

McKendry shot the spots entirely on green screen with nothing behind Waterston. Baxter and the Nice Shoes team then designed the backgrounds as a full virtual environment, creating and placing the giant letters using 3D text, geometries and projection. The textured environments presented a particular challenge – to choose the optimal final product Baxter sorted through more than 50 original looks. “TD wants strong backgrounds and textures that tie into their brand, and after so many campaigns we have a gut feel for what they’re looking for,” noted Baxter. Nice Shoes handled all of the visual effects, design and animation, and the color grading on the campaign, with each department collaborating closely throughout the process to create a comprehensive solution for this complex project.

“We’ve been working with the same internal artistic team for years, and that gives us a huge advantage when dealing with clients,” noted Colorist Chris Ryan. “With Nice Shoes, clients don’t have to go through multiple rounds of approvals with various shops – we all work together and have everything laid out between departments before we even start. And we trust one another implicitly. I don’t have to worry about color grading a random green screen because I know the visual effects department is handling it, which is something you can never be sure of if different shops are handling each component separately. That’s a primary reason why clients such as Ogilvy come back to us again and again – they’ve come to rely on this streamlined process to save them time, money and headaches.”

“This latest shoot really shows how powerful the new creatively collaborative studio – with the talent of Nice Shoes and Guava finally together under one roof – will be,” noted Moore. “Having everyone so close has really sped up and enhanced the creative and production processes.”

About Nice Shoes
NYC-based Nice Shoes is a full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. Since its inception in 1996, the studio has prided itself on consistently reinvesting in its talent, technical backbone, and client experience to set the standard of excellence both creatively and technically. Key company principals include: CEO/Partner Dominic Pandolfino, Partner Joe Bottazzi, Managing Director Mike Donovan, CDs Aron Baxter and Victor Newman, Colorists/Partners Chris Ryan and Lez Rudge, EPs Pat Portela and Maribeth Phillips, VFX Artist/Partner Rich Schreck, CFO / COO Julia Kisla, CTO Bob Keske, and VP of Sales & Marketing Travis Taylor, VP of Operations Angie Gomez.

CREDITS
Client: Go Robot Edit
Spots Title: Objectivity, Straightforward, Green Shoots
Air Date: December 2009

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather NY
Executive Creative Director: Bill Heater
Group Creative Director: Jill McClabb
Associate Creative Director: David Perris
Interactive Group Creative Directors, Bruce Henderson, Witold Riedel
Associate Creative Directors: Jeff Leaf, Robert Balog
Art Director: Brian Murphy
Copywriter: Darren Jeffries
Executive Producer: Lee Weiss
Producer: Sarissa Karnbach

Prod Company: Form
Director: Gary McKendry
EP: Rossi Cannon
Head of Production: Michael Murphy
Producers: Adam Bloom, Larry Gold
Production Supervisor: Craig Rodgers

Post/Effects: Nice Shoes
CD: Aron Baxter
Flame Artist(s): Aron Baxter, Jason Farber, Andrew Granelli, John Shea, Bryan Rosenblum
Managing Director: Michael Donovan
EP: Pat Portela
Producer: Dave Moore

Telecine: Nice Shoes
Colorist(s): Chris Ryan, Lez Rudge

Editorial: Go Robot
Editor: Adam Liebowitz
Producer: Laura Molinaro
Assistant Editor: Peter Reglis
Graphic Artist: Christian Matts

RELATED LINKS
www.niceshoes.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

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The creators of Evolver, the world’s first web based tool for building custom 3D character models, have just launched Avatara, a new site designed specifically for social media enthusiasts. Avatara enables fast, easy creation and upload of customized, animated 3D avatars for use on Facebook, Myspace and for instant messaging to friends.

Avatara leverages the core functionality of Evolver, which provides professional 3D animators a cost-and-time efficient way to build custom character and creature models. To bring the excitement of animated 3D characters to the masses, Avatara focuses on consumers, enabling them to produce customized, automatically-animated avatars and push them to social media sites for their friends and colleagues to see – quickly, easily, and at no cost.

Avatara combines ease of use, web accessibility, great looking 3D characters and high quality animated output to take users through a simple process that lets them create their avatar in just minutes. Users can choose from a gallery of over 700 user generated character designs, or mix and match faces, bodies, eye colors, makeup styles, hair styles to produce a 3D model that resembles themselves. They can then choose from a growing number of animated moods and actions to apply to their custom avatar.

“Avatara makes Evolver’s revolutionary technology relevant for a very large audience,” said Brian Nilles, CEO of Darwin Dimensions, makers of Evolver and Avatara. “We had a growing population of social media enthusiasts on Evolver who wanted to have access to animated avatars because that allowed them to express their moods more artfully. We responded with a customized version that makes it fast, easy and fun for anyone to produce animated emotive avatars.”

About Darwin Dimensions
Darwin Dimensions Inc., develops solutions that bring together complex 3D modeling, consumer ease of use, and fully interoperable avatars. The company’s flagship offering, Evolver.com, provides a central portal to design, manage and transport digital avatars that can be deployed in virtual worlds, online games, social networks and professional animation and pre-visualization projects. A highly customizable licensed version of Evolver is also available as an integrated site specific avatar generator designed specifically for the target application and its customers. For
more information visit www.evolver.com or contact (949) 330-6345.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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Another great new spot for Coke edited by Cut + Run for Wieden + Kennedy and director Daniel Kleinman; with visual effects created by Moving Picture Company.

The commercial, titled ‘Finals’, opens with a young man lying asleep at his bedroom desk, exhausted after long hours of revision. A digital alarm clock shows that time is running dangerously close to the start of his 11.30 am History exam.

Historical characters suddenly emerge from the pages of the history study books lying around him, and attempt to wake him up using various forms of miniature weaponry. Finally Da Vinci arrives in a flying machine sporting a length of rope and a grapple hook. With the help of the armies below, they manage to open a bottle of Coca Cola that is standing near to the students head.

The noise wakes him up and he drinks from the bottle and heads for the door. We are once more reminded of the irresistible sound we hear when opening a Coke. The commercial was launched mid January 2010.

About Cut+Run
Cut+Run is a boutique editorial company with locations in Los Angeles, New York, and London. The award-winning shop features a diverse roster of talented editors who contribute their vision and skill to commercials, film and music videos. With an emphasis on client service, Cut+Run operates under a “borderless” philosophy making its editors available to work anywhere. Editors can also cut on set wherever projects are shot.

About MPC
The Moving Picture Company (MPC) is a world leading post production facility creating high-end digital visual effects and computer animation for the feature film, advertising, music and television industries. A wholly owned subsidiary of Technicolor, MPC is based in Soho – London, Santa Monica – CA and Yale town – Vancouver. The facilities are centrally located, networked and have a dedicated digital infrastructure designed and built for our future.

About Widen + Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy is an independent, creatively led advertising agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their consumers. Wieden+Kennedy has helped create some of the strongest brands in the world and, in the process made clients like Nike, ESPN and Miller High Life a part of popular culture.

About Daniel Kleinman
Daniel Kleinman is a commercials director. He has won the top awards for his advertising work at Cannes, D&AD, the New York One Show, BTAA, Clio, Creative Circle, Midsummer Awards and many others. He has been recognised as the number one most awarded director in the world in the Gunn Report. He has received the Presidents award from the Creative Circle and the Chairman’s award from the BTAA and has been rated number one in Campaign’s list of hottest directors over four consecutive years.

View the commercial here.

CREDITS
Client: Coca-Cola
Airdate: January 13, 2010

Agency: Wieden & Kennedy
Agency Prod: Jennifer Fiske
AD: Nate Miller
CW: Brian Murphy
CD: Hal Curtis / Sheena Brady

Prod Co: Epoch Films
Director: Daniel Kleinman

Editorial Company: Cut + Run

VFX: Moving Picture Company
SFX: Henry Boy

RELATED LINKS
www.cutandrun.tv
www.wk.com
www.moving-picture.com

Popularity: 12% [?]

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A Very Small Office Director Mikon van Gastel, working closely yet again with Peterson Milla Hooks, just finished a series of upbeat, lighthearted spots promoting Target’s Frugalista campaign. The effort, which debuted during the 2010 Golden Globes and will also run during the Winter Olympics, features a series of vignettes that are shuffled from spot to spot to create a custom commercial appealing to each event’s audience, while retaining the central message that Target is the place for everyday shoppers to find affordable fashion.

The spots star a series of hip, sophisticated models, sauntering through settings that range from beaches to hillside mansions to humble trailer homes, each flaunting her Frugalista “find”: jewelry, shoes, bikinis, coats and more.

Visually clever, organic camera movements combine with choreographed action to tell each woman’s “find” story quickly and succinctly. Mikon shot the vignettes both on stage and on location, choosing the backdrop carefully to complement the featured product in each sequence.

The live action and design-driven production meshes perfectly with the cinematography to deliver the unique stylish sensibility of the Target brand and create a genuine connection with the viewer. The spots come together perfectly with a kinetic editorial style that plays pitch perfectly off the dialogue embedded in the music.

About A Very Small Office:
Co-Founder/CD/Director Mikon van Gastel and Co-Founder/Executive Producer Saffron Case opened A Very Small Office (AVSO) in the spring of 2005. Home to design based commercial directors, AVSO has the ability to design and deliver projects from concept to completion. AVSO offers expertise in graphic design, film, emerging media, integrated content, and architecture with an openness to embracing new forms of collaboration and emerging technologies.

About Peterson Milla Hooks
PMH is most successful with clients who value the power of style and design to elevate their brands and build affinity with their customers.As Target’s long-time agency partner, they have helped create a look, feel and personality for Target that has propelled it into the company of the world’s leading icon brands. Their work for Target has been broad and varied – brand image, fashion, home furnishings, cosmetics, music, electronics, performance apparel, even toothpaste and toilet paper. Their ability to create a sense of aspiration and desire for brands has helped them attract other clients including Electronic Arts, Anheuser-Busch, Mattel, Ruby Tuesday, XOXO and Turner Classic Movies.

CREDITS
Client: Target
Spots Title: Frugalista Campaign
Air Date: Golden Globes/January 2010

Agency: Peterson Milla Hooks
Art Director: Matthew Parr
CD: Dave Peterson
Head of Production/Producer: Aldo Hertz

Prod Company: A Very Small Office
Director: Mikon van Gastel
EP: Saffron Case

Editorial: Channel Z
Editor: Brett Astor
Producer: Ace Allgood

Post/Effects: Pixel Farm
Lead VFX: Kurt Angell
Flame Artist: Tony Mills
Producer: Bill Kruse

Music: Modern Music
Composer(s): John Hermanson, Bryan Hanna, Eric Fawcett
Creative Director: Daron Walker
Producer: Joanna Jahn

Shoot Locations: Los Angeles Locations

RELATED LINKS
www.averysmalloffice.com
www.pmhadv.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Prime Focus has completed over 90 VFX shots for the BBC’s new 5 x 60m HD series “How Earth Made Us.” The program explores how geology, geography and climate have influenced and continue to shape human history. Each episode examines a different force, including the effects of deep earth, wind, fire and water. The series concludes with a look at how the human race has become a geological force in its own right. The first episode aired in the UK on BBC Two on Tuesday 19 January.

Travelling to some of the most iconic locations on the planet, Professor Iain Stewart discovers how the river Nile caused Egypt to dominate the ancient world, how the break up of a super-continent 200 million years ago shaped an energy revolution, and how wind patterns changed the history of China and Australia.

“Graphics were a vital part of the series ambition, helping to explain the nitty gritty of how the Earth has influenced human history,” said Jonathan Renouf, series producer for the BBC. “Prime Focus was great to work with.

The team grasped difficult concepts and came up with some stunning ways to visualize them, whether it was the relationship between the planet’s wind systems and the growth of trade, or the way in which fault lines stimulated the growth of early civilizations.”

The Prime Focus team, led by Broadcast VFX creative director Simon Clarke and VFX producer Melody Woodford, worked for eight months on the project, supplying around 50 minutes of high-end VFX shots. “We were tasked to create a large number of shots with a fairly tight budget and high expectations of quality,” said Simon. “As well as creating credible visual effects, many shots required a level of conceptual visualization to demonstrate specific scientific phenomena. For example we were tasked with depicting the formation of distinct sand dunes created by consistent wind cycles that sculpt the shape of the land.”

The initial phases of work involved blocking out camera moves to get some sense of timing and to provide the edit with animatics. In parallel to this, digital matte painters worked on creating high levels of texture detail to apply to 3d models and backgrounds. In addition the team was tasked with streamlining the ‘Earth’ pipeline – optimizing render set ups to deal with the vast amount of picture information and detail that were required for the surface textures.

“For many shots the camera travelled more obliquely across the surface, so a more three dimensional approach was called for in creating terrain and volumetric clouds. This added another level of detail and scale enabling us to start in fairly close on the earth and pull out wide. The clouds would then scale accordingly,” said Simon. “One particular shot caught the eye – a huge pull out from an aerial live action shot of the presenter standing on Mt. Connor in Australia to a ’space shuttle’ type view of the earth, giving the illusion that it was one seamless camera move.”

Melody Woodford, the VFX producer, was able to call on the Prime Focus Film VFX team in North America, who was busy working on James Cameron’s Avatar at the time, for a specific shot which showed the progression of giant crystals forming in a Mexican cave.

“We knew that our Film VFX colleagues had used a piece of software for simulating the kryptonite sequences in Superman Returns which was very similar to the look we were trying to achieve,” said Melody. “We did some modifications to the software and the R&D that was behind it and then they took that sequence on board to deliver the finished shot. It was a great example of our ‘Worldsourcing’ business model.”

Prime Focus is one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, specialising in creative and technical services for the film, broadcast, commercials, music, games, internet and media industries. With a market capitalisation of $140m USD, it operates nine facilities in India, four in the UK and four in North America, offering clients access to a talent pool of over 600 visual effects artists worldwide.

CREDITS
Project: How Earth Made Us
Client: BBC
Broadcaster: BBC Two
Production manager: Alison Castle
Series producer: Jonathan Renouf
Executive producer: John Lynch
Directors:Matthew Gyves, Nigel Walk, Charles Colville, Annabel Gillings, Matthew Dyas

VFX: Prime Focus
VFX creative director: Simon Clarke
VFX producer: Melody Woodford
VFX coordinator: Paul Driver
3D: Ian Baxter, Simon Goodchild, Sam Cox, Peter Forsythe, Scott Nelson, Nick Hanks, Lenka Zuckova
2D: Graham Stott, Pedro Lara
Graphics / matte painters: Johan Gay, Milan Schere
Flame: James Adamson, Adam Crocker

RELATED LINKS
www.primefocusworld.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

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Rhino’s Harry Dorrington directed a dazzling, 100 percent CG spot promoting Comcast’s Triple Play Rewards program. Dorrington directed the :30 entirely in-house at Rhino, completing it only five weeks after Agency M approached the studio for the project.

Gift Box centers around a Kubrick-inspired under-lit cube floating in a stark white world. The cube rotates through space, each side featuring a different element of the triple play (Digital TV, high-speed Internet, phone service), while a voiceover details the rewards program.

When a red ribbon ties itself gift-wrap style around the cube, it begins to shake until the top springs open like a jack-in-the-box, releasing a thundering stream of tiny CG props – popcorn, video game controllers, drum kits – representing potential rewards.

The props continue to swirl around blizzard-like behind the typography for the spot’s remainder, injecting the spot with a magical feel. Dorrington and his team executed the spot entirely in Maya, then topped it off with particle simulation and an HD Flame finish.

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
Client: Comcast
Spot Title: Gift
Air Date: November 2009

Agency: Agency M
Executive Producer: Conrad Layson
Creative Director: Rob Linsalata
Art Director: Heather DiPiazza
Account Executive: Kelly Horst
Copywriter: Courtney Abud

Post/Effects: Rhino
Creative Director/Director: Harry Dorrington
Executive Producer: Yfat Neev
Producer: Cara Buckley
CG Supervisor: Yuval Levy
3D TD: Ivan Guerrero
3D Modeler: Brian Dinoto
3D Modeler: Bogdan Mihaljovic
3D Previz: Sean Curran
3D Animator: Goran Ognjanovic
3D Texturing: Yuheng Chiang
3D Lighter: David Bernkopf, Rob Pearson
Flame Compositor: Micky Gorenstein
Flame Assistant: Barry Furlano
Production Manager: Lauren Montuori
COO: Camille Geier
Managing Director: Rick Wagonheim
CEO: Zviah Eldar

Music & Sound Design: Wicked Music
Original music: WickedMusic.com
Sound Design: WickedMusic.com

Audio Mix: Studio Center
Audio Mixer: Pete Romano

RELATED LINKS
www.rhino-gravity.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

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FUEL TV commissioned motion design and production studio Royale to collaborate with commercial and fine artist Adam Haynes to create the latest station ID for the network’s popular Signature Series. Royale & Haynes delivered ID #24 of the ongoing series, which is slated to culminate into one hundred unique installments. Created as a way for athletes & artists to inspire the action sports culture, FUEL TV’s Signature Series was itself inspired by the concept of signature series deck designs popular in skateboard culture.

For ID #24, FUEL TV tasked Royale to animate illustrations by the Oregon-based artist Haynes, who is also renowned in the action sports world for his artistic imprint on snowboards and groundbreaking work for Nike 6.0. Entitled “Rogue Wave,” FUEL TV began airing ID #24 in January 2010.

Animated with the pulse of Adam Haynes’s illustrated opus, “Rogue Wave” opens amid the subdued palette of his signature landscapes: a weathered Pacific Northwest forest. Gazing upward, falling twigs foreshadow an unusual cataclysm: brittle conifers begin to snap, crashing to the undulating ground.

Gaining momentum, the torrential ground uproots everything in sight before cresting into an epic timbered tsunami. The ID concludes in cyclic fashion, as rust-colored clouds cede to pale blue skies, and a young sprig of pine emerges from the debris, as the FUEL TV logo comes into focus.

“We’re thrilled FUEL TV invited us to be part of the Signature Series, partnering us with Adam Haynes,” remarks Royale.

Collaborating remotely with Haynes, Royale says “Rogue Wave” culminated organically. The studio shared animated treatments with the artist, working back and forth, until both parties achieved the desired continuity for final delivery.

“Working with Adam’s illustrations was a nice departure from more conventional approaches to animation,” comments Royale. “It’s invigorating for us as a studio, creatively, to shift roles and collaborate diversely.”

Royale animated the illustrations with Adobe After Effects. Here, Royale says, the biggest challenge was preserving the detail of Haynes’ artwork.

“Animating the ‘wave’ illustration in After Effects gave the ID a really unique look,” comments Royale. “Using a 2D approach helped us maintain the detail of Haynes’ aesthetic.”

Royale concludes: “For creatives in the broadcast design field, FUEL TV’s Signature Series represents a true dedication to art. These IDs aren’t just about pop culture or getting people to tune in. FUEL TV is genuinely all about the art.”

About FUEL TV:
FUEL TV is the action sports lifestyle network for skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, BMX, freestyle motocross, and wakeboarding. A unit of Fox Cable Networks, FUEL TV was launched July 1, 2003 and is seen in 30-million U.S. homes.

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
Adam Haynes FUEL TV Signature Series ID #24 Concept & Artwork by Adam Haynes

FUEL TV:
SVP & GM: CJ Olivares
Creative Director: Todd Dever
Director On-Air Promotions: Michael Cooley

Production Company: Royale
Creative Director: Brien Holman
Creative Director: Jayson Whitmore
Executive Producer: Jen Lucero
Producer: Anne Hong
Animator: Royale
Designer: Royale

Music/Sound Design: Bluetube Productions Written by: Michael Kohler

RELATED LINKS
www.weareroyale.com
www.fuel.tv

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Manic Director and VFX Artist Nick Sasso shot, edited and handled all post production on a series of five web virals for the new mobile studio/beatmaker feature on the hit Beaterator video game for SonyPlaystation Portable (PSP). The videos, done in collaboration with Wax Poetics for Rockstar Games (of Grand Theft Auto fame), each feature known musicians, lost in a creative haze as they mix new tracks on Beaterator.

Sasso perfectly meshes the energy of the underground music scene and the creative capabilities of Beaterator with wordless sequences set against an array of Brooklyn and Jersey City landmarks, classic city buildings, and small businesses. Chico Mann features the artist of the same name rocking out to PSP on his city stoop before descending into his basement studio.

Chin Chin and Psycho Les feature those artists similarly jamming between Beaterator and their studios. KDef stars that artist sifting through the overstuffed racks of vinyl in a glorious old record store while pausing to mix on his PSP. Spree Wilson is set against the soaring Brooklyn Bridge and the Hudson River, with Wilson enraptured with his creative efforts. Energetic, colorful graphical patterns bring each spot to a close. Sasso shot the videos over the course of three days on a RED camera.

“Beaterator’s new mobile studio is a very cool piece of technology, as it lets musicians create high-quality music that’s equal to what once took a roomful of equipment to design,” noted Sasso. “I wanted to create spots that captured the focus and energy of these musicians while making it apparent that the PSP was at the center of their craft, which led to awesome shots of truly talented artists immersed in a creative trance.”

“Nick continues to impress with his ability to take a creative concept and turn it into a final product,” stated Manic Managing Director Bob Cagliero. “He can single handedly take on the workload that usually gets shuffled around between three or four different studios. Nick’s work ethic and versatility are trademarks of our very strong staff, which is exactly why agencies keep coming back to Manic.”

About Manic:
Manic is a comprehensive creative solution for conception through completion of all media. Based in NoHo NYC, Manic delivers live-action production, cutting-edge motion graphics, 2D and 3D VFX, design, animation, and high-end finishing services for clients working in commercials, feature films, television, music videos and broadcast. The company’s artists and principals have led campaigns for notable brands such as Nike, Virgin Mobile, Acura, Reebok, Verizon, Maybelline, and Apple from major agencies TBWA/Chiat/Day, Merkley+Partners, McCann Erickson, and JWT to name a few.

CREDITS
Client: Rockstar Games
Product: Beaterator for SonyPSP
Spots Title: Chico Mann (featured), Psycho Les (featured), Spree Wilson (featured), Chin Chin, KDef
Air Date: January 2010

Agency: Wax Poetics
Creative Director: Andre Torres
Executive Producer: Dennis Coxen

Production/Post: Manic
Director: Nick Sasso
DP(s): Tim Naylor, Damien Barba
Editor/VFX Artist: Nick Sasso
Creative Director/Design: Fran Roberts
Designer: Ben Hill
Managing Director: Bob Cagliero
Production Manager/Line Producer: Emily Gleicher

Shoot Location: Brooklyn, NY/Jersey City, NJ

RELATED LINKS
www.nycmanic.com

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