Hasta La Motion!

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/henson_director_th.jpg”]24630[/NEWS]DETOX, a brand-new hybrid production boutique in New York, has officially launched. Headed by Founder/Creative Director Barney Miller, alongside experienced industry pros Andy Hollander, Co-Creative Director, Rachelle Way, Head of Production, and Alice Mintzer, Creative Development, DETOX features a roster of top creative and emerging talent whose professional backgrounds span the spectrum of production and post.

DETOX’s services include live-action production, graphics packaging, CGI and animation. The hybrid production company is equipped to execute integrated campaigns including commercials, viral and web, as well as music videos.

DETOX has already wrapped up production on several commercials and music videos, including a hilarious integrated campaign via Hofstetter + Partners/Agency212 for Henson Alternative’s “Stuffed and Unstrung,” the extraordinary live puppet show unleashing Henson Puppeteers for adult-only audiences. The campaign, featuring both broadcast and web spots, began airing on March 7, 2010. Directed by Barney Miller, the spots are currently making a buzz on viral charts and airwaves alike, garnering critical praise including recent honors as Creativity’s “Pick of the Day.”

Mike Rovner, Creative Director, Hofstetter + Partners/Agency212, remarks: “Working with DETOX on the [Henson Alternative] campaign was a dream. I haven’t met a better, happier EP than Rachelle Way, and Barney, who already has his share of hilarious moments as a cutter, is about to explode as a comedy director.”

“What I’m bringing to the production industry comes from a creative editorial standpoint,” says Miller, best known as a premiere commercial & music video editor and co-founder of Company X Edit. “My career in post, along with years of experience directing, informs the workflow of DETOX.”

Click here to view the Henson Alternative broadcast spot entitled “The Pitch”.

Four directors comprise the inaugural DETOX roster: Barney Miller, Bruce Ashley and Terence Ziegler, with recently signed talent Aaron Brown rounding out the company’s core creative team. DETOX is currently ramping up its roster, with more director signings to be announced in the coming months.

DETOX’s experienced and proven core team has worked on an array of smart brands including Coke, VW, Dasani, American Express, Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, Colgate, and Ralph Lauren; feature films, including “Waitress” and “Serious Moonlight;” in the music realm, projects and music videos for Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Lenny Kravitz, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, most recently, the music video for the Oscar scoring theme song from “Crazy Heart.”

DETOX opens with a mission to elevate the production standard for agencies and clients, while accommodating budgets without compromising the creative. With its core creative team heavily rooted in virtually every aspect of postproduction, DETOX offers an innovative workflow with unrivaled production value, especially in light of today’s economic realities.

“We have the know-how and talent to materialize client ideas, and the foresight to eliminate hiccups in production, which ultimately saves our clients money,” comments Miller. “Too often, with the traditional production model, waste and compartmentalization restrict creative capabilities. We have the antidote.”

Click here to view the hilarious Henson Alternative virals.

Reflecting on Henson Alternative, Rovner attests to the DETOX production model: “Whenever I have a tough challenge, or just want to have a blast working on really great creative content — with no headaches — there’s probably only one place to go now. Everyone at DETOX takes incredible care of your concept from the moment they get on board: they coddle it, caress it, and make it sing by the time you’re in color correct.”

Miller proudly adds, “We shot the [Henson] broadcast spot and all the virals in one day without having to rush. We knew exactly how to shoot, making the transition to post seamless and free of technical challenges.”

Additionally, DETOX bolsters its “under-one-roof” model via strategic partnerships with NYC-based allies Company X Edit, Sugarbox Studios and Shout It Out Loud Music. The combination of these creative forces offers clients the incentive of an ultra-tailored approach to the entire scope of content creation: from shooting to post, color correction, CGI & effects, finishing, music, sound design and mixing.

Miller concludes: “Having worked with some of the industry’s best directors as an editor and, through the years, directing numerous projects, DETOX is truly a natural evolution of my experience on both sides of the spectrum. When production works in tandem with post, everything goes smoother and, ultimately, the creative works.”

Meet the Principals of DETOX:
Barney Miller, Founder/Creative Director, DETOX: As co-founder of Company X Edit, Barney has been editing award-winning spots for close to twenty years. Some of the brands he has worked on include VW, American Express, Coca-Cola, Sprite, McDonald’s, Avon, and AT&T. His directing experience includes major label music videos, commercials, shorts films, and various animation projects.

Andy Hollander, Co-Creative Director, DETOX: Andy has been composing scores for feature films for the last 10 years, including the hit film “Waitress” and, most recently, the Meg Ryan film “Serious Moonlight.” He has written and/or produced tracks for Your Vegas, David Johansen, and White Rabbits among others. He opened Sugarbox Studios in 2006 and is now a partner/composer with Shout It Out Loud Music, where he’s worked on numerous national campaigns including American Express, Quaker, Verizon, and the 2008 You Vote Campaign.

Rachelle Way, Head of Production, DETOX: Rachelle served as Executive Producer for Company X Edit from 2003 to 2009, where she helped build a small boutique shop into one of New York’s most robust editorial houses. Rachelle previously worked at RhinoEdit and Plum Productions in Los Angeles. Additionally, Rachelle is active in the commercial production community, serving as President of the NY Chapter of AICE and Treasurer of the International AICE Board.

Alice Mintzer, Creative Development, DETOX: Alice spent 10 years as an Executive Producer at Ogilvy where she was in charge of the American Express account, before becoming a freelance consultant. Prior to that, Alice was a Senior Producer at Lowe & Partners. In addition to DETOX, Alice is currently developing a TV series.

DETOX Director Reels:
Barney Miller

Bruce Ashley

Terence Ziegler

Aaron Brown

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/nascar_spoiler_thumb.jpg”]24536[/NEWS]Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal effects boutique Brickyard VFX recently created CG cars that appear alongside live-action counterparts and added graphics to other live action cars in a new NASCAR-themed ad campaign for Toyota Racing that spans TV, print and the web.

Titled “Sponsafier,” the campaign invites NASCAR fans to get involved with the season and drivers by ‘sponsifying’ a Toyota Racing car. A series of three hilarious :30 TV spots (and one :60 combined version) introduces the concept and drives fans to the ToyotaRacing.com website, where they can design a custom skin for the race-version Toyota Camry that could earn them a trip to a NASCAR all-star race.

The spots show ‘sponsifying’ in action, with ordinary fans — a kitten-loving little girl, a love-struck teenage boy, and a role-playing video gamer — designing their own Toyota racecars that real NASCAR drivers have to pilot. Viewers watch poor Kyle Bush, dolled up in a pink suit adorned with fluffy kitties, racing his ridiculous pink car around a stadium track surrounded by traditional-looking cars.

Joey Logano suffers a similar fate, driving a dragon/warlock themed racecar while dressed as a medieval knight. Denny Hamlin actually seems slightly enthusiastic about his sponsor as he jockeys for position on the track in his ‘love car’ dedicated to an adolescent’s crush on his fantasy girl, Amanda.

Brickyard created CG versions of each of the hero cars, complete with high-resolution texture maps, using photos, HDRI and lighting data from the shoot to match lighting and details. They also created additional cars (Little Debbie, Window World and NAPA) and integrated them all in to the spots to augment the racing scenes and add camera angles and turntables that helped to sell the stories.

“Three cars on a racetrack isn’t much of a race,” said Brickyard lead 3D artist David Blumenfeld. “When we added CG cars around to make the race more competitive.”

The stadium shots presented a particular challenge in tracking, Blumenfeld said. “NASCAR races with speeds approaching 200mph, are shot from cameras alongside the track. They pan on a banked track and do a tremendous amount of zooming, which flattens the entire field. That makes it challenging to use tracking software. Also, replicating the shots without having information on the lens or the size of the stadium was a challenge. We did most of the tracking was finessed above the level of automatic tracking software capabilities.”

“The objective was obviously to make the cars look completely realistic so that the viewer can’t identify the fake cars on the racetrack. We separately had to create a more stylized car for the end tag,” said Carl Harders, Lead CG Artist. “To achieve these looks required two separate lighting setups, one that was like a traditional studio and one that was taken from environment of a race track. Since they were created after the shoot, we created the elements and HDRI we needed to match reflections that best suited the situation.”

Brickyard also created computer-based lighting to match the exact conditions on the track, including reflections of the stadium environment passing over the tops of the CG cars. The studio used Maya and Renderman to create, light and render the CG elements for Toyota. The client was ecstatic with the car assets that Brickyard created are also used in the ToyotaRacing.com “Sponsafier” feature and gallery, and were rendered out in high resolution for use in the print campaign.

Located in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard VFX is an independent visual effects boutique specializing in top quality visual effects from 3D characters through to compositing. Artist owned and operated, the company was founded in 1999 to bring clients a level of customer service, craftsmanship and focus difficult to find at facilities today.

Brickyard’s creative expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, color correct and render seamless digital effects for Pontiac, Bud Light, T-Mobile, NBA, Visa, Sprint and many other accounts.

CREDITS
CLIENT: Toyota
SPOT NAMES:
“Warlock” (:30)
“Amanda” (:30)
“Kimmy” (:30)
“Sponsafier” (:60)
1st BROADCAST LOCATION: USA

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles
Creative Director: Andrew Christou
Executive Creative Director: Mike McKay
Art Director: Rick Ardito / Nick Luckett
Agency Producer: Jennifer Vogtmann
Copywriter: Grant Smith / Eric Burnett

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Epoch Films
Director: Matt Aselton
Producer: Marc Marrie

Post Production/VFX: Brickyard VFX, Santa Monica
Head of Production: Diana Young
Visual Effects Producer: Carla Attanasio
Lead 2D Artist: Patrick Poulatian
Lead 3D Artist: David Blumenfeld
2D Artists: Mandy Sorenson, Chris Sonia
3D Artists: Dan Gutierrez, Carl Harders, Drew Daleo

Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Tom Scherma
Audio Post: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber
Sound Design: 740 Sound
Designer: Eddie Kim

RELATED LINKS
www.toyotaracing.com
www.brickyardvfx.com

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/fish_image.jpg”]24480[/NEWS]Framestore has created photoreal CG animals doing weird and wonderful things for MJZ’s Dante Ariola and Y&R New York. Shot on location in Thailand, the three-part global campaign uses realistic-looking animals with extraordinary abilities to promote LG’s Infinia TV. Butterflies sees a single cocoon release tens of thousands of CG butterflies; Elephant sees the mammal rebuilt in CG to gracefully climb a tree; and Lure sees a CG fishing lure find its freedom whilst following a playmate in the deep blue sea.

This enormous creative task included designing and animating intricate CG whilst rebuilding complex backgrounds. All post production was completed in just five weeks, leaving very little margin for error. Each commercial posed vastly different challenges, with the team leads – Alex Thomas (2D) and Diarmid Harrison-Murray (CG) – constantly having to adapt their thinking when jumping between commercials.

In Butterflies, the main challenge was to create thousands of butterflies that looked real as a swarm, whilst retaining the intrinsic beauty that these fascinating insects possess, particularly during flight. The 3D team had to find the right balance between naturally chaotic flying and choreographed flying that could neatly tell the ad’s story of ‘infinite flow’. Caution was taken to ensure the butterflies didn’t become too stylised and bird-like, especially in the more crowded shots.

The opening hero butterflies were hand animated for a smooth and organic feel, but the wider shots used a particle system to disperse the insects when they begin to number in the thousands. Range of colour and attention to detail were crucial, so the team created unique butterfly designs and added touches like rendering a fine layer of fur to avoid a plastic or solid look. Meanwhile, the 2D team painstakingly rotoscoped around the foliage so the butterflies could ‘fly’ behind some of the leaves. The 2D brief required a delicate hand to enhance the film’s magical lighting in Flame with subtle effects like lens flares and volumetric light.

Although Elephant’s eponymous animal seems to be climbing skillfully, it maintains an arduous sense of weight. Alex Thomas and Diarmid Harrison-Murray worked closely with Dante Ariola on set, shooting a variety of setups with real elephants, so that as often as possible, the real animal could be used, even if the background had to be rebuilt. At times the final shot is a combination of real elephant and CG.

Considering the elephant’s climb was entirely unnatural, it was given amazingly authentic-looking movement through careful 3D animation and convincing 2D compositing. Given the intense schedule, raw CG renders of the elephant struggled in extreme close up, so tight shots were enhanced with 2½D projections of the real elephant.

The 3D team also worked on augmenting the tree to make it appear more climbable and generated the tree trunk base to replace the elephant’s live action step. The jungle canopy needed to be closed in selectively in 2D and soaring CG parrots were added to draw attention to this sole opening. The final vista was built as a labour of love in Flame using location stills as a base. Flame was also used to create quiet but enriching visual effects like leaves that fall as the elephant strikes the tree.

Lure sees a fishing lure meets its doppelganger and so had the strongest narrative requirements. The animation challenge was in conveying a seemingly inanimate object being propelled by underwater currents, without it coming across as cute Pixar-esque character. Both the lure and the fish were designed in CG, with iridescent colour being a client priority.

The underwater footage provided no tracking markers and few lighting references. Fortunately, though, a solid track wasn’t appropriate due to the fluid environment. In the absence of HDRs, fish and lure reflections were based on procedural HDRs generated by creating an artificial environment that emulated underwater colours and movements.

The shoal required a delicate balance between natural movement and narrative choreography and the light that comes through it was built using shaders to create a sense of light travelling through the fishes’ bodies. CG elements were degraded in Flame to mimic the backplate’s natural imperfections. For example, a chromatic aberration effect – where the channel splits at the edge of frame in underwater footage – was applied as a blue blur to the edges of the fish and lure.

Framestore’s Flame artist, Alex Thomas, who has worked with Dante Ariola several times before, said: “This project presented a lot of creative and technical challenges which had to be completed in a very short space of time. But the 3D and 2D teams pulled together brilliantly, pushing the technology in many ways. We were always in contact with Dante and the agency as well, who together steered the ship on a daily basis, pushing to get the best at every stage. Personally, I really enjoyed the experience. And the chance to collaborate with so many talented people.”

Click here to view all three commercials.

CREDITS
AGENCY Y&R New York
AGENCY PRODUCER Robert Beck
PRODUCTION COMPANY MJZ LA
DIRECTOR Dante Ariola
PRODUCER Nathalie Richardson-Hill

VFX Framestore
TELECINE Framestore

RELATED LINKS
www.framestore.com

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/mazda_thumb.jpg”]22883[/NEWS]Rhino CD Vico Sharabani recently collaborated with director Jason Smith of Industry on an elegant new :30 for Mazda via Doner, Detroit. Sharabani supervised the planning, shoot and post work for all VFX, with a special focus on a detailed pre-vis to streamline the spot’s creation as much as possible.

The setting of What’s Inside is a high-tech garage where a MAZDA3 is partially deconstructed then seamlessly reassembled into a MAZDA5. As the crew of mechanics and machines finish their job, the vehicle is boarded by a family who drives the new MAZDA5 out of frame. While the spot appears to be totally live action, it is really a seamless mix of CG and in-camera footage blended to show off both the interior and exterior of Mazda5.

“Both Doner and Jason Smith were outstanding creative partners,” noted Sharabani. “They understood that making the natural flow work would require major `Frankenstein-type’ surgery, and their insight and willingness to adapt were refreshing. We used multiple layers in post to fully integrate a complex composite, a process that was considerably easier than it could have been, since we took care of as many details as possible in pre-vis.”

In order to exactly fulfill the director’s and the agency’s vision, Sharabani invested an incredible amount of time in pre-vis to determine which elements should be created with CG and which should be made with more traditional methods.

The high tech garage, for example, with its stainless steel cylinders, light fixtures, shelves, and flatscreen monitors, is built of real props, while the ceiling, which retracts to allow a giant claw to descend and remove the car’s entire body, is CG.

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.

CREDITS
Client: Mazda Canada
Spot Title: What’s Inside
Airdate: November 2009

Agency: Doner, Detroit/Canada
ECD: Steve Chavez
CD(s): Dan Willey, Mark Gray
Sr. AD: Jim Ward
Copywriter: Steve Chavez
Sr. Producer: Kali Kyriazis
SV. EP: Kurt Kulas

Prod Company: Industry Films
Director: Jason Smith
EP: Joan Bell
Producer: Neil Bartley

Post/Effects: Rhino
CD: Vico Sharabani
Flame Artist: Kevin Quinlan
CG Supervisor: Yuval Levy
Modeling: Brian Dinoto
Animation: Sean Curran, Goran Ognjanovic
CG TD: Ivan Guerrero
Tracking/Match Move: Bogdan Mihajlovic
Lighting: Rob Pearson, Gilad Kenan
Flame Assistant: Barry Fulano
Roto: Joshua Bush
Producer: Karen Bianca Bisignano
Production Manager: Dorit Avganim
COO/Sr. EP: Camille Geier
Managing Director: Rick Wagonheim
CEO: Zviah Eldar

Editorial: Panic and Bob
Editor: Michelle Czukar
Assistant Editor: David Findlay

RELATED LINKS
www.rhino-gravity.com

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/drpepper_santa_thumb.jpg”]22689[/NEWS]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.

“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.”

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