The first annual awards presented by the Visual Effects Society (VES), scheduled for Feb. 19, will honor a broad spectrum of visual effects artistry from a variety of disciplines, including commercial work. In the spot categories, everything from fully CGI animals to models and miniatures has been nominated. Here is a look at how the artists involved in the VES-nominated spotwork created each ad.
"MECHANICAL LEGS"
Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., received three nominations for adidas’ "Mechanical Legs," directed by David Fincher of bicoastal Anonymous Content via 180/TBWA, San Francisco. The spot was nominated by the VES for best visual effects in a commercial; best effects art direction in a televised program, music video or commercial; and best compositing in a televised program, music video or commercial. The Digital Domain team on "Mechanical Legs" consisted of senior VP/general manager Ed Ulbrich; executive producer Gabby Gourrier; visual effects supervisor Eric Barba; visual effects producer Baptiste Andrieux; visual effects coordinator Eileen O’Connor; animation supervisor Bernd Angerer; compositing supervisor Feliciano Di Giorgio; animation artists Piotr Karwas and Giancarlo Lari; compositors Jean-Marc Demmer and Greg Teegarden; modeler Spencer Alexander; digital artists Teegarden, Aram Granger, Richard Morton and Kevin Quattro; conceptual designer Jeff Julian; and data integration artisans Scott Edelstein and Heather Schlenker.
"Mechanical Legs" is set in a state-of-the-art laboratory where adidas shoes are being tested for endurance by a pair of robotic metal legs. The legs move steadily on a shifting hardwood surface, but soon begin doing basketball-style athletic jumps and moves, finally battling another pair of sneaker-wearing metal legs, as though in a game of one-on-one.
The project is remarkable for its photorealism, which was meticulously achieved through 11 weeks of CGI work. Digital Domain got involved early on, says Ulbrich, who has worked with the agency in the past. The early discussions involved how to achieve the effects—actually building animatronic legs was discussed before the agency chose full CGI.
After the first director had to drop out for scheduling reasons, Fincher, known for his feature film direction (Panic Room, Fight Club), came on board and, according to Ulbrich, "fell in love with the project." Fincher earns praise from Ulbrich and Barba for his heavy involvement in every aspect of the spot. "Some directors cool off if a project takes too long," observes Ulbrich about the time-consuming CGI work. "Not David."
"Mechanical Legs" utilized Digital Domain’s in-house NUKE software, which, says Barba, "allows us to treat our CGI as if it’s a piece of film and exposed with a virtual camera."
Before the effects work began, Digital Domain built a set in an old bowling facility, which was lit to Fincher’s specifications. Then Barba and his team spent two days photographing the different setups to get a photographic record, which was subsequently inputted into the software. Another two days were devoted to motion capture work, as two basketball players and two dancers, clothed in special black suits, went through different moves, which were then blended into the moves of the mechanical legs. "That was sometimes tricky—going from a basketball move by a six-foot-two-inch basketball player to a dance move by a five-foot-four-inch dancer. We had to make it seamless," notes Barba. "The spot was challenging because of the time frame and the complexity of the work. In the end, everyone was very pleased."
"PRIMA DONNA" AND
"KUNG FU"
The VES gave two nominations to Berkeley, Calif.-based Tippett Studio for the Blockbuster spots "Prima Donna" and "Kung Fu." The latter was nominated in the best character animation in a live action televised program, music video or commercial category. "Prima Donna" joined "Mechanical Legs" in the best visual effects in a commercial category.
Both spots are part of a campaign that features Carl the rabbit and Ray the guinea pig, two talking animals who live in a pet shop window across the street from a Blockbuster store. Steve "Spaz" Williams of Complete Pandemonium, San Francisco, directed the spots for Doner, Southfield, Mich. The Tippett team consisted of visual effects supervisors Scott Souter and Frank Petzold; executive producer Jules Roman; visual effects producer Alonzo Ruvalcaba; art director Joel Friesch; lead character animators Todd Labonte and Eric Reynolds; character animators Dovi Anderson, Rick Glenn, Morgan Ratsoy and Tom Schelesney; lead lighting artist Steve Reding; lead compositor Jim McVay; digital painters Laura Hainke and Young Song; lead modeler John Koester; match move supervisor Kirk Larkins; and visual effects editor Des Carey.
Tippett was involved early on in both ads, working with the agency and the director on script changes. The original plan was to use real animals and simply animate their lips, although that later evolved into full CGI character animation. "The rabbit was the straight man and the pig had the gags," recalls Labonte. "Originally, they just had flapping lips on real animals that were sitting there. As we did tests, we ended up doing more physically based stuff."
That, in turn, opened up new possibilities for character actions—for example, kung fu moves and the introduction of ninja mice at the climax of "Kung Fu"—which were added to the scripts. "The mice ending was an improvisation," says Souter. "But the agency loved it."
Crafting photoreal creatures was a particular challenge, since the rabbit and guinea pig had to move both naturally (as animals) and unnaturally (in human-like moves). In addition, the animators’ skills were tested in how they made the animals talk. "It’s hard for a lipless creature to say the vowels ‘O’ and ‘U,’" says Reynolds. "That was a problem because Blockbuster has a ‘U’ it. You wanted to make it photoreal and not too cartoon-y."
The process involved building a pet store set, which was lit with clay models of the characters standing in for the CGI versions, and then shot without the models. Six spots, involving some 55 to 60 shots, were crafted in six months, using Maya animation software, Shake and proprietary programs.
The agency had to take much on trust. "It was a learning curve for them," says Petzold. "They had to learn how computer graphics are made. There are a fair amount of steps. At first, the animated Carl and Ray looked like puppets without fur, so it was hard for the agency to judge what they were getting. Later, when they saw them with fur on, properly lit, they were reassured."
"MOSQUITO"
Joining Blockbuster’s "Prima Donna" and adidas’ "Mechanical Legs" in the best visual effects in a commercial category was Xbox’s "Mosquito," with visual effects created by artisans at Framestore CFC, London. Daniel Kleinman of Spectre, London, directed the spot via Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London. The Framestore CFC team comprised special effects supervisor William Bartlett; CGI artists Andrew Daffy, Markus Manninen, Jake Mengers, Jamie Isles, Antony Field, Simon Stoney, Chris Syborn, Howard Sly and Don Mahmood; Inferno artists Bartlett and Ben Cronin; matte artist Stephanie Mills; R&D experts Alex Parkinson and Tim Aidley; technical support staffers Chi-Kwong Lo and James Studdart; Spirit artist Dave Ludlam; post producer Helen MacKenzie; and post coordinator Rebecca Barbourwere.
"Mosquito" starts with a single mosquito’s high-pitched whine as it buzzes about in the Garden of Eden. Other mosquitoes join in, and the whining becomes music for the animal kingdom. But everything about the mosquito’s life changes when one mosquito realizes it can suck the blood of humans. From that point on, the bugs are constantly working at finding food—and being squashed by human hands; in turn the insects are no longer harmonious. The spot concludes with a shot of a child running a toy train over the remains of several mosquitoes. The child looks into the camera as the voiceover says, "Humans, you have a natural gift for play; don’t lose it. Work less. Play more." The Xbox logo then appears.
Kleinman brought Framestore CFC on board, having worked on many effects-heavy spots with the company over the past 14 years. According to MacKenzie, the agency creatives encouraged the animators to add ideas, making it "a great collaboration."
Daffy notes that the team had to find "new ways for mosquitoes to move." The many effects shots—almost every single one contains digital mosquitoes—were created entirely in Maya 4.0, using the 3-D software to create a range of mosquito models, which featured seven levels of detail depending on how close the shot was. Matters were expedited, according to Daffy, by the use of a new tool, 2d3’s automatic tracking software, Boujou.
For Bartlett, one of the biggest problems was scale and what he calls "readability." A single CG mosquito that fills the screen registers easily, but convincing the eye that it is seeing swarms of mosquitoes forming themselves into gigantic shapes and dancing in time to music—all against a "natural" forest background—is another matter. "It was a balancing act," Bartlett recalls. "I had to make it subtle but legible."
The animals and birds were another tricky aspect. They were supplied as stock footage and placed on new backgrounds in Inferno by Bartlett. The images consisted of a variety of shot elements, some 16 mm, some 35, which were composited together to seem as if they had all been taken in the same jungle. "A lot of work was needed to get it looking right," relates MacKenzie, who adds that the project was accomplished in a tight, 10-week turnaround schedule.
The experience was rewarding, adds Daffy, and ultimately successful because of the effects-savvy director and the supportive creatives. "The agency gave us the freedom to try new things," he notes. "They asked us, ‘Please, come up with ideas.’ That’s rare from an agency. It was very exciting."
"VISITORS"
The VES Awards nominations also included Hunter/Gratzner Industries, Los Angeles, for Gatorade Fierce’s "Visitors," directed by David Denneen through bicoastal Anonymous Content, for Element 79 Partners, Chicago. (Denneen has since shifted his U.S. representation to Los Angeles-headquartered Form.) Hunter/Gratzner was nominated in the best models and miniatures in a televised program, music video or commercial category. The team from Hunter/Gratzner included model supervisor/company principal Mathew Gratzner; crew chief James Waterhouse; model makers Scott Lukowski, Eric Coon, Matt Burlingame and Greg Boettcher; model production assistant Enrico Altmann; and painter Leigh Jacob. The digital visual effects studios on the job were Animal Logic, Sydney, Australia, and A52, Los Angeles.
"Visitors" features New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter taking on a group of ferocious gargoyles in a bizarre game of baseball. The gargoyles come to life from their perches in a gothic-style stadium, but are destroyed when they encounter vicious line drives off Jeter’s bat.
Gratzner, who has worked with Anonymous previously, was offering ideas during the bid stage, three months before he actually signed on board. Originally, the stadium was to look more like the Coliseum in Rome, but that eventually evolved into a rundown version of Yankee Stadium.
Once that was determined, Hunter/Gratzner’s team had three-and-a-half weeks to build the model. It was a painstakingly detailed, one-sixteenth scale miniature. The stadium was about 24 feet wide by 16 feet deep and about three feet tall, made primarily from wood, with some elements made of metal, resin, acid-etched brass and micro-fine glass. The New York City skyline seen in the background was a rented and refurbished version of a 1940s cityscape used in The Hudsucker Proxy.
Gratzner is pleased with the VES nomination. "It’s good to be recognized by your peers," he relates, noting that traditional model making is not exactly in vogue. "The concept of practical effects has become a dying art. People often do not consider it a viable solution, because they feel that computers can do it better. All are tools. People are saying that miniatures are archaic, but it is one of the oldest effects techniques in film. When it is exploited and used properly, it can be very exciting. Nine times out of ten, CGI doesn’t get you the lighting texture of something that is photographically real. Models do."
