Skoda Gets Mean With MPC

[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/skoda_small_thumb.jpg”]28266[/NEWS]Fallon’s Chris Bovill & John Allison were the creative minds behind Skoda’s latest spot, Mean Green Made of Meaner Stuff, directed by Nick Gordon. A petrolheads fantasy featuring the construction of the twin charged petrol engine with a supercharger and turbo Fabia vRS.

Starting with a nod to its predecessor “Cake”, it suddenly transforms into a metal rendition of “My Favourite Things”. This car is built from altogether meaner stuff.

The spot was produced by Angus Smith at Fallon and Sally Campbell at SomeSuch & Co. MPC provided the post, creating the CG snake engine, robot arm, bone chassis and extensive compositing.

MPC’s team led by Rob Walker worked closely with the Director to ensure all the necessary elements were captured in the live-action shoot. While the shoot was taking place in Prague, MPC’s Concept artists were exploring different treatments for the CG elements.

The snake engine needed to look like an engine yet be able to come alive as convincing snakes. The final design used a mix of realistic snake textures combined with metallic/engine textures to create this illusion.

The Robot Arm was required to unfold and extend up to 60 feet to allow the car to be painted in a very precise and dynamic way. The bone chassis was created using digital matte painting, sticking very closely to the design of the actual chassis yet introducing elements of skulls and bone imperfections for the scavenging vultures.

Once the concept was signed off the 3D team was responsible for modeling, texturing and animating the snake engine and robot arm using Maya and Mental Ray. MPC’s 2D team worked on Flame and Nuke to integrate these elements into the live action plates.

The footage was enhanced in post to help the technicians make the various components that form the final car. Smoke, sparks, heat haze and the laser eye beam was also added in post. The spot aired in the UK on 1st November 2010.

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.

CREDITS
Director: Nick Gordon
Agency: Fallon
Agency Producer: Angus Smith
Creatives: John Allison and Chris Bovill
Production Company: SomeSuch & Co
Producer: Sally Campbell
DOP: Mattias Montero

Post: MPC
Post Producer: Julie Evans
VFX Supervisors: Rob Walker and Jake Mengers
VFX Team: Chrys Aldred, Andrew Brooks, Remi Cauzid, Maurizio de Angelis, Spiros Kalomiris, Carsten Keller, Adam Leary, Jake Mengers, Jorge Montiel, Mikael Pettersson, Christophe Plouvier, Rob Walker
Telecine: Jean Clement Soret

RELATED LINKS:
www.moving-picture.com

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Exr files too Heavy

Heya, i am truying to understand some thing,
i am using exr files rendered from 3dMAX
🙂 scenario one – i am rendering all passes to separated files (like with tga), so i have light pass, gi, refl, …. – and compositing is very fast,
:confused: scenario 2 – i am rendering all passes into one exr file – so i have one multichannel exr – here i am having problems – compositing is very slow – it is too heavy for Nuke

I tryed to use Remove node -to keep only channels i need – not help
tryed shuffle them – same result
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Roto Animation Artist – MPC – London

Roto Animation Artist
A Roto Animation Artist is responsible for delivering high quality character and object roto-animation for feature films. They would be working closely alongside Matchmove Artists and Animators to create animation that matches the movement of the selected character / object on the film backplates and that also moves realistically in 3D space. Successful applicants should have the ability to work well as part of a team and be capable of delivering work to meet deadlines.

Primary Responsibilities

  • To roto-animate a variety of characters and / or objects that match the film backplates for various film projects and maintain consistent shot quality
  • To work closely with Roto Animation Supervisors / Leads to create convincing performances and motion of characters and objects in both screen and 3D space within the animation package for the addition of CG effects.
  • To be able to follow direction and take ownership of your tasks.
  • To be able to confidently flag when there are issues and lack of clarity of your tasks informing relevant supervisors and production managers.
  • Do their best to stay positive and accept direction changes in an intense production environment.
  • To be conscious of continuity between scenes when working with other Roto Animation Artists on the same character / rig.
  • To organize their time, collaborate, and effectively communicate with their supervisors and team mates.

Experience and Skills required

  • Relevant experience in a similar role, preferably within feature films.
  • The candidate must thrive in a team environment and enjoy working with other artists.
  • Candidates should demonstrate a good eye for detail and precision with strong problem-solving skills
  • Able to deliver results to a high standard with the aid and direction of the Roto Animation Leads / Supervisors.
  • Ability to be adaptable and accepting of changes in a production schedule.
  • An understanding of the computer graphics production process and other departments/disciplines needs and requirements.
  • Aware of project schedules and capable of delivering work to deadlines.
  • Knowledge of 3D animation toolsets (preferably Maya).
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To apply please send your CV to millie-c@moving-picture.com

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i´m walking with a styrofoam-block with tracking-markers on it through my scene. now i´m trying to manually track this scene, wich works fine. i´m building a node tree with scene, camera, scanlinerender an a cube and merge it together with my footage. now the cube sticks very good on my tracking markers however there is no turning in the z-axis. How do i get x,y and z-data from my manual tracking?

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Im working on a shot that have some wires to be removed. The shot is 2500 frame long… lot of work… i started last night and in order to see how my work goes, i made a selected render from 0 – 300, in a Test.mov H264 (this is HD project)…

It started and a few seconds later this message appears:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 1, in <module>

File "C:/Program Files/Nuke6.0v1/plugins\nukescripts\renderpanel.py", line 31, in render_panel

nuke.executeMultiple(_list, frame_ranges )

RuntimeError: F_WireRemoval in F_WireRemoval1: Effect raised an error during render.

The schematic is Read (Tif sequence of the shot in HD) then Wireremoval node, then a write node attached, then a viewer with one bus to see the original shoot, and another to see the repair. No multiple WireRemoval nodes or any complication.

Any ideas?!

Thanks all of u

Juani./