Hasta La Motion!

Hot off the heels of Benjamin Button’s Oscar success, Digital Domain’s commercial division shows us what they’ve been up to with a three-spot campaign for the 2010 Lexus RX. They’ve been getting plenty of airtime on TV, but in case you’ve missed them, take a look:

• Assembled
• City
• Intersection

The spots were directed by Carl Erik Rinsch and had some top notch talent on board with DP Claudio Miranda (nominated for an Oscar for cinematography) and production designer Donald Graham Burt (won the Oscar for set design).

The first two spots are filled with a beautiful blend of visual effects and live action, while the third spot is mostly live action with a sparse graphic touch. Some of my favorite moments from “Assembled” are the conveyor belt moving almost snake-like over the black leather couch and the pull-out shot of the car being assembled by robotic arms on the street.

“City” has its own share of visually rich shots and easily convinces you that a whole city of cars and buildings were literally hoisted up for your traffic-free pleasure.

If you haven’t already had your fill of car commercials, take some time to browse Digital Domain’s ever-growing library of 45+ automotive spots in the Advertising / Automotive section of their website.

If you’re a fan of Digital Domain’s work, remember that Ed Ulbrich, Executive Vice President and President of Commercials Division, will be speaking at F5.

Credits

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

CLIENT: Lexus
PRODUCT: 2010 Lexus RX

AIR DATE for “Assembled”: 02/16/09
AIR DATE for “City”: 02/16/09
AIR DATE for “Intersection”: 02/16/09

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Team One / El Segundo, CA

Chief Creative Officer: Chris Graves
Group Creative Director: Jon Pearce
Group Creative Director: Gavin Lester
Executive Producer: Jennifer Weinberg
Account Supervisor: Kristie Weston

PRODUCTION COMPANY: RSA Films, Inc. / Los Angeles, CA

Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Executive Producer: Marjie Abrahams
Director or Photography: Claudio Miranda
Line Producer: Annie Johnson
1st Assistant Director: Howell Caldwell
Production Supervisor: Bryan Mitchell

ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc. / Venice, CA

President of Commercials, Exec. Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production:  Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jonah Hall
CG Supervisor – “Assembled”: Ron Herbst
CG Supervisor – “City”: Greg Teegarden
VFX Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
VFX Coordinator: Stephanie Escobar
Previsualization: Simon Dunsdon
Flame Artist: Jonny Hicks
Flame Artist: Brian Boungiorno
Flame Artist: Dave Stern
Flame Artist: Chris DeCristo
Flame Artist Assistant: Matt Bramante
Nuke Compositor: Rafael Colon
Nuke Compositor: Sven Dreesbach
Nuke Compositor: Brian Smallwood
Nuke Compositor: Michael Morehouse
Digital Artist: Marc Perrera
Digital Artist: Tim Nassauer
Digital Artist: Jon Gourley
Digital Artist: Chris Norpchen
Digital Artist: Terry Naas
Digital Artist: Justin Lloyd
Digital Artist: Jeff Dierstein
Digital Artist: Adrian Dimond
Digital Artist: Ruel Smith
Houdini Artist: James Atkinson
Matte Paint: Wei Zheng
Roto Artist: Marianne Magne
Roto Artist: Mattaniah Yip
Roto Artist: Tom Piedmont
Roto Artist: Mike Boden
Roto Artist: David Wu
Roto Artist: Kanae Morton
Roto Artist: Keith Weilmuenster
On Set Tracker: Scott Edelstein
Integration Tracker: Som Shankar
Integration Tracker: Shelley Larocca Courte

EDITORIAL HOUSE: The Whitehouse / Santa Monica, CA

Editor:  Rick Lawley
Producer:  Joni Wright

MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN & AUDIO POST/MIX HOUSE
Location:  HUM

Posted on Motionographer

Digital Domain Campaigns for Lexus

A volte basta cambiare il punto di vista e la vita sembra fantastica…..
Specialmente se è un autodromo del circuito NASCAR visto da sotto terra. Un’idea così semplice ma in realtà è complicatissima da realizzare.
Tutto il 3D è stato prodotto da La huella FX di Madrid, mentre la live action è stata girata a Los Angeles, con qualche problema logistico nel sopraelevare gli attori a più di 4 metri da terra per filmarli dal basso.
Lo spot sorprende per l’accurato livello di dettaglio, la qualità delle textures e l’illuminazione.

Articolo redatto da Stefano Paron

Oscar-nominated directing duo Smith & Foulkes (Nexus Productions) put their powers to use for Coca Cola and Weiden+Kennedy Portland in an endearing Super Bowl spot entitled “Avatars.”

Playing with the idea that most of us live double lives—one digital, one physical—the :60 project features oodles of alter-egos designed and brought to life by Smith & Foulkes.

Smith & Foulkes explain their approach:

The challenge for us was to film the live action in a documentary style, incidentally observing moments of human behaviour, and then animating the Avatars into the footage in a very naturalistic way.  It wasn’t about crazy 3d characters running amok, more about the everyday human behaviour of idly sitting around in parks and coffee shops.

We initially shot the footage on very long lenses to give the sense of the observational camera, before starting the huge technical challenge of believably replacing humans with Avatars in each shot.

I especially like the care S&F showed in creating the digital counterparts for each person. It’s as if they crawled inside the brain of each character to discover what idealized image of themselves would manifest itself in digital space.

Obviously there was a lot of fun to be had in casting each Avatar for each human, showing how people might select their online identity.  Some would be a complete fantasy, while others a slightly more exciting version of their real selves.

The track is “Stranger in the Crowd” performed by Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley (and originally made famous by Elvis Preseley).

Posted on Motionographer

Smith & Foulkes: Coke “Avatar”