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Fallon and A Glass and A Half Full Productions have created Cadbury latest commercial ‘Spots V Stripes’, an underwater adventure eagerly anticipating the ‘big game’ of 2012. Nick Gordon directed the spot through Academy Films and Augusto Sola was the Creative Director. MPC created a full cast of over 60 photorealistic CG creatures and provided extensive environment work.

As an official sponsor of the Olympics 2012, Cadbury is already building up for the event and has created their own big game, sub-aquatic style. MPC was involved during pre-production including pre-vis and concept work to develop the right look for the creatures and the environment. It was clear from an early stage that VFX would play an essential role in the success of the ad; all the animals had to be fully CG and most of the environments had to be created or enhanced in post. MPC Jake Mengers led the team as VFX Creative Director with Stefan Gerstheimer as 3D Supervisor and Michael Gregory as 2D Supervisor.

The Director wanted to create a photorealistic look for the creatures but their livery had to be adapted to fit with the teams; stripes and spots. MPC main challenge was modelling, animating and texturing 14 different types of animals including turtles, devil rays, octopuses, sailfish, ducks, crabs and mantis shrimps. All the assets were modelled in Maya, painted in ZBrush, textured using Body Paint and rendered with Mental Ray.

The live action plates for the environments were captured in the Red Sea during a 5-day shoot. Many of the underwater environments were rebuilt entirely using a combination of 3d elements and live-action projections.

(Click here to view full promo)

Reference material gathered during the shoot helped the 2D team recreate the environment matching detritus, caustic light and the light rays in 3D, combined with volumetric shadows for added realism. A lighting setup was designed to mimic the underwater conditions in a render efficient way.

‘To composite the creatures into the live action plates we looked at a lot of real reference we had shot and also lots of underwater stock footage – explains 2D Supervisor Michael Gregory. With the help of some wonderfully lit cg and some irridescence passes we were able to seamlessly composite them back into the plate. Paying particular attention to the depth cueing of the shot and adding light rays, subtle flares and detritus helped us bring all the shots to life.’

The balloons were rendered with 4 different textures including barnacle, lichen and moss passes then integrated with 3d bubbles and exploding cloudy fluid simulated in Maya.

The crescendo to the commercial is a slow motion exit shot with a Tufted Duck being chased by the Sailfish and Devil Ray. The duck was feathered using Maya Fur and rendered using Mental Ray. All of the slo-motion water elements were created with bespoke Bokeh and Real Flow water. Jean-Clement Soret added the all-important master grade.

?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§I remember the reaction when I fist shared the idea with the Client. “We love it”, they said “But how the fuck are we going to do it??” I had the same thought as I never before worked on such a big a post production job and the ad relied on a flawless post production. After 9 months of working with Jake and his team of 40 guys and with Nick I can say we fucking did it…’s Augusto Sola ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® Creative Director.

RELATED LINKS
www.moving-picture.com

CREDITS
Director: Nick Gordon
Advertising Agency: Fallon
Agency Producer: Nicky Barnes
Creative Director: Augusto Sola
Production Company: Academy Films
Production Company Producer: Lucy Gossage
Editor: Ed Line @ Final Cut

Post Production Co: MPC
Post Production Producer: Julie Evans
VFX Creative Director: Jake Mengers
VFX Line Producer: Stefano Salvini
VFX Supervisors: Stefan Gerstheimer (3D) and Michael Gregory (2D), Jorge Montiel Meurer (Animation)

3D VFX Team: Adam Burnett, Adam Elkins, Adam Leary, Ahmed Gharraph, Andrea Falcone, Andrea Kozakova, Andreas Graichen, Andrew Brooks, Andrey Ryabovichev, Anthony Bloor, Antoine Moulineau, Ben Wiggs, Charlotte Tyson, Chris Petts, Christopher Gooch, Dominic Edwards, Fiona Russell, Glen Swetez, Grant Walker, Ian King, Ian Ward, James Bailey, Janak Thakker, Janek Lender, Jason Brown, Jorge Montiel Meurer, Liam Griffin, Mark Brown, Monica Taddei, Nicholas Illingworth, Nidhi Seth, Richard Hopkins, Robert Hesketh, Rodney McFall, Sandy Heslop, Simon Payne, Stefan Gerstheimer

2D VFX Team: Fabio Zaveti, Greg Howe-Davies, Heather Goodenough, Jim Spratling, Kelly Bruce, Michael Gregory, Neil Griffiths, Stephen Newbold
Telecine: Jean-Clement Soret

Popularity: 4% [?]

Dexter Morgan, Miami Metro Police Department blood spatter analyst, has a double life. When he’s not helping the Homicide division solve murders, he spends his time hunting and killing bad guys who slip through the justice system.

Dexter will charm fellow officers with a doughnut, while away a Sunday with his wife Rita and the kids, or chop up a victim and package their body parts in plastic bags. Hiding beneath the mundane exterior and contrived facade of Dexter is an obsession with meting his own twisted brand of justice: stalking and murdering the guilty.

Dexter is a television drama series that first debuted in October 2006 on the American network Showtime. The first series was based loosely on ‘Darkly Dreaming Dexter’ by Jeff Lindsay, the first book in the Dexter series by the novelist.

(Click here to view the trailer)

The talented team at SWAY Studio collaborated closely with Director Norry Niven to create the new, promotional trailer for the much-anticipated 5th Season of “Dexter.” Featuring America’s favorite serial killer, Dexter Morgan, the dramatic and compelling promo literally turns Dexter’s world upside down, and entices viewers to tune in for the season premiere.

SWAY creates persuasive, photo-real, computer-generated imagery for ad agencies and other content producers using customized tools and techniques that push the boundaries of possibility, ensuring our clients’ product is leading-edge.

CREDITS
Creative Director/VFX Supervisor: Mark Glaser
Executive Producer: Jason Cohon
VFX Producer: Les G. Jones
VFX Coordinator: Andrew Gilson
3D Layout, Modeling and Animation: Scott McNeff
3D Lighting, Texturing, Rendering: Erick Schiele
Compositing Supervisor: Marguerite Cargill
Flame Artist: Elad Offer
Flame Artist: Kevin Prendiville
Flame Artist: Tim Bird
Flame Artist: Brad Scott
Nuke Artist: Olivier Sarda

RELATED LINKS
www.swaystudio.com
Official Dexter Website

Popularity: 4% [?]

Director, Edgar Wright’s (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) eagerly awaited new film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, is based on the cult comic book of the same name by Bryan Lee O’Malley and follows Toronto based hipster Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) and his band Sex bob-omb.

The story charts Scott’s efforts to win the heart of the elusive girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). However, nothing is ever straight forward in love and Scott soon discovers that in order to win Ramona’s heart, he must defeat each of her 7 evil ex-boyfriends in combat.

When Wright approached Double Negative to help him realise the visual effects of the movie, Dneg’s VFX Supervisor, Frazer Churchill and his team, knew that the biggest challenges would be in keeping the spirit of the comic alive, making the graphics photographic and visualising the extremely stylised fight sequences, all of which were based in a hyper-real altered reality.

The visual effects employed in the film, covered a huge spectrum, including creating some of the film’s stylised exteriors and cg environments, comic book graphics, visualised music, and of course, the 7 fights, ranging from kung fu to skatebording style (and everything in between), each of which escalated in spectacular intensity throughout the film and featured goodies such as Demon Hipster Chicks, Snow Dragons and a Sound Yetti, yes, a Sound Yetti!

(Follow this link to the film website for more info and to view trailers)

THE STORY
Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim. A bass guitarist for garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams…literally. The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers? Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him. Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker’s quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Scott Pilgrim has never had a problem getting a girlfriend. It’s getting rid of them that proves difficult. From the girl who kicked his heart’s ass?‚àö√ë‚àö√Üand now is back in town?‚àö√ë‚àö√Üto the teenage distraction he’s trying to shake when Ramona rollerblades into his world, love hasn’t been easy. He soon discovers, however, his new crush has the most unusual baggage of all: a nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.

As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must face an increasingly vicious rogues’ gallery from her past?‚àö√ë‚àö√Üfrom infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars and fearsome identical twins. And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over.

ABOUT DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Since its formation in 1998, Double Negative has firmly established itself as a leading player in visual effects production worldwide. Located in the heart of London Soho, the company is a pre-eminent visual effects studio with more than 70 feature films to its credit. Led by Managing Director Alex Hope and CEO Matt Holben, Double Negative is capable of handling projects from initial design through on-set supervision and production to post-production. All key post-production technologies are available in-house to allow for maximum flexibility,

“For its sheer sense of spectacle alone though, Scott Pilgrim is a treat, featuring some of the best special effects work I’ve seen this year….” Ethan Alter, NYC Film Critic.

CREDITS
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Produced by: Edgar Wright, Marc Platt, Eric Gitter and Nira Park
Screenplay Written by: Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall
Graphic novels written by: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Narrated by: Bill Hader
Music by: Nigel Godrich
Cinematography: Bill Pope
Editing by: Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss
Studio: Big Talk Films
Distributed by: Universal Pictures

CAST
Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Victoria Flowers
Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells
Ellen Wong as Knives Chau
Alison Pill as Kim Pine
Mark Webber as Stephen Stills
Johnny Simmons as Young Neil
Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim
Brie Larson as Natalie V. “Envy” Adams
Erik Knudsen as Luke “Crash” Wilson
Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers
Tennessee Thomas as Lynette Guycott
Jean Yoon as Mrs. Chau

RELATED LINKS:
www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com
www.dneg.com

SOURCES
doublenegative.com
scottpilgrimthemovie.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Ulf Johansson has directed Drench latest spot ‘Cubehead’ featuring a puzzled man trying to solve his own Rubik style puzzle head. The commercial was produced by Kate Bailey at CHI&Partners and Philippa Smith at Smith & Jones. MPC created the puzzle head combining live action elements.

With the classic song ‘Oops Upside Your Head’ by the Gap Band, a man walks down a tube station with a baffled head. By keeping his brain topped up with Juicy drench he manages to solve the puzzle. MPC was involved from an early stage, working closely with production to find the best approach to develop a Rubik style head.

Two masks were built, one used for the wide shots, when the actor is walking down the platform and a second one used as a model for the moving cubehead. This was built as an exact replica of the actor head, paying special attention to skin textures and colours.

(Click here to view the commercial)

The moves for the cubehead were carefully choreographed and the actor was then shot in the matching positions to capture his facial expressions ?Äì including his head hanging upside down drinking Drench! MPC 2D team led by Matthew Unwin was responsible for integrating all the elements to create a realistic head.

The puzzle head model was shot in the different combinations and MPC tracked and composited the eyes, mouth, chin and other moving parts using Nuke and Shake. Skin details were added for more realism and reflections were composited to the walls. Jean-Clement Soret added the master grade.

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 ?Äì London, Santa Monica ?Äì CA and Yale town ?Äì Vancouver. The facilities are centrally located, networked and have a dedicated digital infrastructure designed and built for our future.

CREDITS
Director: Ulf Johansson
Agency: CHI& Partners
Producer: Kate Bailey
Production Assistant: Josh Sanders
Creatives: Ed Edwards & Dave Masterman
Production Company: Smith & Jones
Production Company Producer: Philippa Smith
Editor: John Smith

Post: MPC
Post Producer: Chris Allen
VFX Supervisor: Matthew Unwin
VFX Team: Michael Gregory, Lisa Ryan, Mikael Petterson, Jason Hayes
Telecine: Jean-Clement Soret

RELATED LINKS
www.moving-picture.com

SOURCE
Moving Picture Company

Popularity: 5% [?]

Cadbury, official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games, invites one and all to pick a favourite team and sign up to an incredible social media event. Cadbury has launched Spots v Stripes, a multi million pound project designed to rouse the British spirit of play in the build up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.

Working with a team of creative partners including Fallon, PrettyGreen, and Drum PHD, the home of delightful chocolate has created an in-depth, exciting and groundbreaking campaign.

With a nod to the classic movies Bedknobs & Broomsticks, and Finding Nemo, a special TV ad has been created to launch the campaign and engage potential players to follow ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Spots’s or ?‚àö√ë‚àö‚â§Stripes’s. The commercial features two teams of aquatic creatures, one spotted and one striped, playing a convoluted and theatrical underwater ball game with seaweed balloons.

The spot invites viewers to visit www.spotsvstripes.com and sign up for their favourite team and compete in an array of fun playground games including tiddlywinks, kiss chase and crazy golf. Individual Facebook pages are live where players will log their scores and keep up to date with the national point tally.

To encourage national participation over the next two years heading towards the London Olympics, sporting events for the rival teams will be held across the country at festivals, sports centres and universities.

For more information visit the Cadbury Spots v Stripes Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Spots v Stripes launch commercial was created by Cadbury ih-house production company Glass and a Half Full Productions.

Click here to view the lauch tv spot.

RELATED LINKS
www.spotsvstripes.com
www.facebook.com/cadburystripes
www.facebook.com/cadburyspots
http://twitter.com/SpotsvStripes
www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com

Popularity: 5% [?]

A new package of four intensely cinematic identities for Nicktoons, created by motion graphics + live action studio nailgun* are guaranteed to raise the eyebrows, (and quicken the pulse), of pre-teen boys watching everywhere.

”Nicktoons recently underwent a major redesign, but wanted us to take it to another place with these identities,” Michael Waldron, Creative Director says. ”Each ID targets their primary audience of pre-teen boys with concepts that explore the mood and tone of the brand and evolves it to a more a mature place.”

If there is a unifying concept to the four IDs it is that Nicktoons — the kids’s network featuring such boy-centric programs as ‘Wolverine’ and ‘The X-Men,’ ‘Speed Racer: The Next Generation,’ ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and ‘Danny Phantom’ — is an expansive and larger than life world where adventure lurks just beneath the surface. It exciting and engaging like a great theme park ride or videogame.

”They wanted an aggressive, cinematic look that would really pull viewers off the couch and into the content,” Waldron adds. ”Each ID needed to be unique, not feel like a campaign, but each have its own aesthetic and idea.”

”Thunder,” which features an intense marriage of cell animation and 3D, begins with a violent wave demolishing a dock. Struck by a lightning bolt, the water takes on added intensity as letters suddenly emerge from the water and form a colossal Nicktoons logo.

”Popcorn Type” features a cityscape where the asphalt ruptures spewing forth the letters from the Nicktoons logo, bouncing violently — so much so, it knocks the camera on its side. The ID ends with the camera still on its side filming the logo.

(Click here to view the IDs)

”Glacier Cave” begins with a shot from within an ice cave where a beam of light shatters a thick ice wall which imprisons the letters of the Nicktoons logo.

Perhaps most surreal of all is ”Pull The Carpet,” which begins with an overhead typographical shot of a desert-like environment that has suddenly been pulled like a carpet out from under itself. As the carpet undulates, random letters tumble like a stampede toward the camera. The spot ends with the fully formed logo literally breaking the proverbial ”fourth wall” as it seemingly shatters the viewers’s TV screen.

”This project allowed us to flex our 3D muscles,” Erik van der Wilden, Director of Editorial and Animation says. ”Most of the time 3D is used to make something — a product, a person, a logo ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® look great. For this we used it to tell a story, a compressed one to be sure, but definitely a visceral story with a beginning, middle and end.”

While the project allowed the studio to stretch creatively and technically, for Waldron the real fun comes from working with a client like Nicktoons, who are so confident in their brand that they allowed nailgun* to play with their logo.

”Nicktoons, and Nick in general, really know their brand and because of that they’sre comfortable letting us push creatively,” Waldron adds. ”They’sre very collaborative and willing to let you go, and know instinctively when to pull you back. It makes for a satisfying process.”

About nailgun*
Founded by Michael Waldron and Erik van der Wilden in 2003, New York-based nailgun*, is a collaborative of artists ?‚àö√ë‚àö¬® 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.

CREDITS:
Client: Nick/Nicktoons
Project: Nicktoons identity package: ”Thunder,” ”Popcorn Type,” ”Glacier Cave,” and ”Pull The Carpet” (all :10).

Design: nailgun*, New York, NY
Creative Director: Michael Waldron
Director of Editorial and Animation: Erik van der Wilden
Senior Producer: M. Shane Dolly

”Popcorn Type”:
Design: Kyung Joo Lee
2D Animation: Ronnarit Lueangwattanakij
2D Animation: Dae Hyuk Park
3D Animation: Santiago Castano
3D Animation: Roger Hom

”Pull The Carpet”:
Design: Sooa Chung
2D Animation: Jong Soo Kim
3D Animation: Jackie Liao
3D Animation: Sung I. Sohn
3D Animation: Haowei Hu

”Thunder”:
Design: Sooa Chung
2D Animation: Cyprian Sadlon
2D Animation: Dae Hyuk Park
Flash animation/Illustration: Tristan Balos
3D Animation: Santiago Castano

”Glacier Cave”:
Design: Ronnarit Lueangwattanakij
2D Animation: Ronnarit Lueangwattanakij
3D Animation: Ronnarit Lueangwattanakij
3D Animation: Roger Hom

RELATED LINKS:
http://nailgun.tv
http://nicktoons.nick.com
www.nickpress.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

To help Cartoon Network bring to life its vision of a brand expansion strategy that included a new look and tone, the international creative design and production studio Brand New School partnered with the network’s creative team to produce a look and sensibility that would allow them to have a dialogue with its audience across an array of platforms.

The network chose to embrace its brand visual heritage of the black and white checkerboard by imbuing it with new meaning, and the artists and producers of BNS were able to bring this idea to life in a fresh, compelling way using dimension, color and movement. All the new design elements began appearing in late May, and the new on-air IDs premiered on the network this week.

“Our brand expansion represents our commitment to delivering a breadth of content that our audience cannot find anywhere else,” said Senior Vice President of Creative Direction, Michael Ouweleen. “The checkerboard is in our DNA and is not only reflected in the subtle redesign of the logo but also provides a through line that connects and helps frame our diverse slate of programming from animation to live-action. The art direction and creative acumen of the Brand New School and their ability to breathe new into the iconic was invaluable and helped us achieve our goal.”

BNS founder and creative director Jonathan Notaro, along with art directors Eric Adolfsen and Mike Calvert, provided detailed insights into the conceptual thinking behind the multifaceted brand expansion project, where their approaches emphasized interconnectedness across each and every deliverable, as well as the pairing of extremely thoughtful design with animation geared toward generating specific audience responses, including laughter.

Click here to view show open.

“This has been a very exciting opportunity for us to be closely involved with Cartoon Network and their continued evolution,” Notaro began. “The new on-air identity complements its diverse range of visual languages, and leverages our design expertise by incorporating specific, creative means for consistently packaging the network’s editorial humor into every second of each broadcast day.”

By combining their design ideas within the organizational approach, the BNS team is pleased to have created a meta-narrative that uses the complete visual identity system to creatively convey the interconnectedness of the channel’s content. From the promos to the menus to the bumps to the IDs, each piece tells the same story from a different perspective, where the checkerboard functions like a chessboard, with infinite moves possible.

“Because we’d created such a gridded and structured designs for the overall approach, it became imperative that the movement of these pieces felt snappy, fast-paced, and above all, playful and full of life,” said Calvert. “Our animators developed a language that’s rooted in familiar physical interactions, but caricatured and amplified into something incredibly captivating and energetic.”

It was important to Cartoon Network that each day part be distinct and branded with its own color, humor and expanding level of complexity. “We wanted to share on-air the excitement we found in the initial explorations of the checkerboard and the grid,” said Adolfsen. “From the first to the last second of each day, we looked for ways to consistently surprise viewers and build on the language of the checkerboard, eventually creating a visual shorthand the audience could embrace.”

The creation of each animated asset in the project was led by BNS’s Hyesung Park, Arthur Hur and Andy Mastrocinque. Among many elements created by various artists under their supervision is a series of 14 short, black-and-white animated IDs, each of which derives visually from the letter forms of the newly designed Cartoon Network logo.

As summarized by Calvert, ‘Our enthusiasm for the brand reached every pocket of this redesign, culminating in the ID system we developed,” explained Calvert. For the ID’s, Brand New School established a simple rule: make a black and white animation based on each of the 14 letters of the words Cartoon Network. “The idents are both a nod to the channel’s history as well as an opportunity to curate the artists we love. They’re a celebration of every form of animation, from hand-drawn cel to 3D.”

For HD design and finishing, as well as all elements of the broadcast package, primary artistic tools for BNS have included Adobe Creative Suite, Autodesk Maya, Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Flame. Complete project credits are available upon request.

About Brand New School
With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Brand New School is a bicoastal directing collective working in all fields of commercial art. Ever evolving, the studio continues to cultivate a sense of wonder and exploration. For its artists and clients alike, BNS represents an opportunity to play at work, to conduct experiments in image-making, and to feed the inspiration that drives the industry.

About Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network currently seen in more than 97 million U.S. homes and 166 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.’s ad-supported cable service now available in HD offering the best in original, acquired and classic entertainment for kids and families. Nightly from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., Cartoon Network shares its channel space with Adult Swim, a late-night destination showcasing original and acquired entertainment for young adults 18-34. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

PROJECT CREDITS:
Project Name: Cartoon Network Brand Expansion

Client: Cartoon Network
Chief Marketing Officer: Brenda Freeman
SVP On-Air/Creative Director: Michael Ouweleen
VP Production On-Air: Nathania Seales
Art Director: Eric Lacombe

Design & Production Company: Brand New School
Creative Director: Jonathan Notaro
Art Directors: Eric Adolfsen, Mike Calvert
Associate Art Director: Forest Young
Logo Designers: Jonathan Notaro, Jens Gehlhaar, Eric Adolfsen, Mike Calvert, Ryan Waller
Lead Designers: Adam Wentworth, Damien Correll
Icon Designers: Mike Calvert, Aaron Stewart
Pitch Designers: Eric Adolfsen, Mike Calvert, Forest Young, Josh Parpan, Will Frohn, Pat Arrington, Philippe Intraligi, Ryan Cox, Sal Dell’Aquila, George Vincent
CG Director: Vadim Turchin
3D Animation: Walter Lubinski
3D Tracking: Han Ho
3D Modeling: Walter Lubinski, Adam Rosenzweig
Lead Animators: Hyesung Park, Andy Mastrocinque, Arthur Hur
Animator: David Rasura
Additonal Animation: Eric Bauer, David Lucido
Flicks Movie Package Design: Jungeun Kim
Flicks 2D VFX Supervisor: Arthur Hur
Flicks 3D VFX Supervisor: Han Ho
Flicks CG Director: Han Ho
Flicks Movie Package Editor: Sam Goetz
Storyboarding: Will Rosado
Managing Director: Danny Rosenbloom
Head of Production: Devin Brook
Producer: Greg Babuik
Associate Producer: Michele Watkins
Production Coordinator: Ilona Klaver
Production Assistant: Madison Brigode

ID Design and Animation Credits
“C” (Magnet): Design: Meg Hunt; Animation: Stieg Retlin, Kat Morris, Andy Mastrocinque
“A” (Roadway): Design: Mike Calvert; Animation: Freddy Arenas
“R” (Car Chase): Design: Ryan Cox; Animation: Walter Lubinski
“T” (Helicopter): Design: Ryan Cox; Animation: Walter Lubinski
“OO” (Split Eyes): Design: Travis Millard; Animation: Stieg Retlin, Hyesung Park
“N (Footjoy)”: Design: Eric Adolfsen; Animation: Freddy Arenas
“N (Teeth)”: Design: Ricardo Villavicencio; Animation: Hyesung Park, Stieg Retlin
“E” (Bubbles): Design: Mike Calvert; Animation: Andy Mastrocinque, Steig Retlin
“T” (Clothesline): Design: Stephen Kelleher; Animation: Hyesung Park
“W” (Serpent): Design: Andrew Poneros; Animation: Andy Masterson
“O” (Infinite Donut): Design: Travis Millard; Animation: Stieg Retlin, Hyesung Park
“R” (Arrgh): Design: Meg Hunt; Animation: Hyesung Park, Stieg Retlin, Jessica Milazzo
“K” (Mega Bite): Design: Ricardo Villavicencio; Animation: Andy Mastrocinque

Original Music: Mad Decent and Michael Kohler

RELATED LINKS
www.BrandNewSchool.com
www.cartoonnetwork.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

The principals of Spinifex Group, worldwide leaders in creating and delivering cutting-edge experience media projects, are very proud to continue their collaborations with Director Han Lixun, famous for the print-block segment of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, and Yvonne Ho, producer on the Beijing Olympic Games, in creating the cinematic multimedia feature attraction at the heart of Yan City, which just opened in China’s Chun Zhu Province.

This latest spectacular high-tech storytelling achievement, uniting the talents of Director Han with those of Spinifex Group creative director Richard Lindsay and his colleagues, builds upon their joint efforts during the historic Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, wherein Spinifex was distinguished as one of the only non-Chinese production company involved.

“A state-of-the-art vision for the Water Show Spectacle provides a beginning to a whole new way of Chinese storytelling using new digital technologies,” said Director Han.

The magnificent Yan City attraction features a stunning re-creation of the ancient city, a museum, a world-class zoo, a philosophers’ garden, and a theme park. Each night, thousands of visitors will simultaneously experience a spectacular, 45-minute water show, which features Spinifex’s multimedia rendering of “The Past Meets the Future.” The content begins on the 250-meter-wide wall of the museum, then appears on a unique 100-meter-wide retractable scrim array, floating on a man-made lake. The content is choreographed to a wide variety of state-of-the-art show effects, including fireworks, water screens, laser and fog machines, and surround sound.

(click here to view multimedia on Vimeo)

According to Lindsay, the first challenge for Spinifex was to concept the story, and the storytelling techniques, to artfully treat the ancient Chinese Spring/Autumn period. “Through our experiences on the Beijing Olympics, we proved we could romantically bring ancient storytelling to life using modern techniques,” said Lindsay. “This is where we came to greatly appreciate Director Han’s strengths in theatre, lighting, innovative sets and mechanics. The brief he gave us for this project was to reflect on the ancient philosophies of Spring/Autumn with an abstract, spirited, and very romantic treatment. As we progressed, he looked to us to help express the nature and storytelling aspects of the show using large format projection across various, large-scale screens.”

To address the need to cover a long period of history in sweeping fashion, Spinifex proposed a stylistic approach that allowed the visual storytelling to be both abstract and dramatic. Typical for the group’s assignments, where the end-product is most often a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, the deliverables were custom tailored to suit the unique venue.

As mentioned, the viewing experience of “The Past Meets the Future” involves the presentation moving across different media: The content first appears in 16:9 HD format, until the screen grows in width to a 7:1 ratio, displaying 7k images. Building upon its track record for presenting audiences with stories that seamlessly make historical use of digital technologies, Spinifex designed this project’s cinematic content to expand and maximize the changing presentation media.

According to the Spinifex production leads, art director Jamie Tuffrey and motion director Matt Lock, the project represented a unique challenge in delivering to the clients’ high expectations within a conservative budget. Live-action production involved a single day of production on green screen, where the source footage was then composited into the digital world, comprised of matte paintings, visual FX and limited 3D elements.

“We decided not to go into a full 3D world, but rather to create the scenes with clever use of 2D motion graphics and matt painting,” said Lock. Working with Director Yang Qingsheng, with whom Spinifex also collaborated on numerous projects, such as the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai World Expo and Hennessey, original footage was captured on the Red Digital Cinema camera at 4K, which allowed great latitude in the composite. China was chosen for the location due to Director Yang’s expertise in Chinese culture, and the ready availability of costumes and props.

To create the project’s ambitious slate of original design elements and animated content, including swords, arrows and flags, Spinifex 3D lead Pepin Portingale and his fellow artists used Autodesk 3ds Max. Matt Lock handled the project’s complex motion design, compositing and VFX challenges, finishing the HD content using Adobe After Effects as the predominant compositing platform.

“We are very thankful to Director Han and everyone involved for making us part of this amazing project,” added Lindsay. “We have deep respect for China and its people, and we feel very fortunate to have contributed to such a world-class show. We are very proud to know that, for every person who goes to Yan City now and in the future, ‘The Past Meets the Future’ will help them to fully experience its wonders.”

Sydney-based Spinifex Group is a creative communications company that partners with agencies, event companies and corporate clients worldwide to blend creativity and technology into experiences that are impactful, relevant and enduring. A true concept-to-completion creative group, Spinifex nurtures original ideas from production to delivery in an environment of innovation and uncompromising integrity, combining time-honored storytelling traditions with the tools of the digital age. Diverse, inventive, and often entrusted with stories of cultures not our own, our creative interpretations continue to be celebrated by local and international audiences alike.

With recent projects ranging from immersive interactive experiences to global broadcast events and epic big screen corporate communications extravaganzas, we are very proud to have resolved some of the most ambitious and complex storytelling challenges of our times, with historical results.

www.spinifexgroup.com

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Lego was a project to show off The Core full range of capabilities as a creative production studio. Impressive modeling, well-executed animation and gorgeous renders set to an over-the-top audio score are perfectly in tune with the fun and excitement that was experienced during the World Cup.

‘We want our clients and potential clients to experience quality 3D character animation that fun and playful, but also professional – a direct reflection of our attitude as The Core,’ says Chad Feeback, Executive Producer/Partner.

For Creative Director/Director Chris Hoffman, the concept was inspired by his childhood in Zimbabwe where Legos were among his favorite toys – and soccer was a popular pastime. ‘The Lego figure is a worldwide phenomenon enjoyed by many people in many countries, and so is the sport of soccer. I felt that the Lego was the perfect character for this World Cup piece.’

(Click here to view Lego spot)

It took the small team of artists over two weeks of pulling late nights and weekends to complete the spot. Hoffman credits the artists for investing their time and passion into the project, which was a labor of love – and one that everyone was proud to be a part of.

Hoffman concludes, ‘We hope audiences will feel the personal touch of this spot. It tells the story of how the underdog prevails through pure determination and heart. This was an opportunity to show how The Core, a well-respected and growing boutique studio, is capable of doing the A-level work that clients expect from larger companies.’

LEGO CREDITS
Production Company : The Core / Los Angeles, CA / USA
Director : Chris Hoffman
Executive Producer : Chad Feeback
Lead Character Animator : Ian Mankowski
Modeling : Wendy Klein
Lighting : Chris Barischoff
3D Animators : Mike Cahill, Tom Gurney, Jeffrey Engle, Alex O’sDonnell
Color and Compositing : Chris Hoffman, Alex Yoon
Production : Chris Emerson
Sound : 740 Sound Design

RELATED LINKS
www.thecore.la

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