DANCERS SWAY TO THE MUSICAnimation, effects and design studio Sway, based in Culver City, Calif., has wrapped “After Party,” a whimsical spot for Chandon Sparkling Wine out of Dentsu America. For the project, Sway’s artisans deployed detailed character animation with high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) and photogrammetry techniques. The :30 captures a private moment between two magical characters, evolving from a Chandon bottle’s wire cage and foil, as they share a secret tango among romantic computer generated tabletop candles, chilled bottles of Chandon and the sparkle of city lights. “The challenge was to evoke passion and emotion from characters made simply from foil and wire,” said Mark Glaser, owner and creative director of Sway, who directed the spot. Sway started with a professional live-action tango duo, directing them to create the performance that would be used for the wire characters. Because the dancers were so intertwined at times, Sway opted to use motion capture techniques, instead of multi-camera video reference. To provide the correct quality of movement, Sway used the motion capture data applied to the wire characters as a reference to animate the hero wire characters in 3D space. Once the wire characters were moving in 3D via motion capture, Glaser was able to shoot a variety of action coverage as if he had a virtual camera crew and dancers on stage. Sway additionally recreated the entire interior location, including the champagne bottles, table, candles and twinkling city lights, utilizing photo real CG, HDRI, compositing and photogrammetry techniques. The final spot is almost entirely computer generated as only seven of the 24 shots contain live action.
FLUID OPENS AUDIOBOX
New York-based editorial, original music and sound design studio Fluid has launched Audiobox.tv, a music/video web application that allows creatives to upload video online and then select and mix tracks from Fluid’s original music catalog. The mixes can then be emailed to friends for their comments or alternate choices. Audiobox.tv is designed and has an intuitive interface specifically tailored for commercial TV production. Users can quickly and easily audition hundreds of possible tracks and share their choices with others. The beta Version is now online at Audiobox.tv. Fluid’s clients include such agencies as Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Saatchi, TBWAChiatDay and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Fluid’s work was recently featured in the WB film Michael Clayton starring George Clooney…
PEOPLE IN THE NEWSPiyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director of Ogilvy, India & South Asia has been named 2008 TV/cinema, print, outdoor and radio jury president for the 2nd Dubai Lynx Awards, a competition that is part of the 1st Dubai International Advertising Festival to be held in Dubai March 31-April 2. Pandey has been named the most influential man in Indian advertising five consecutive years by noted India business paper The Economic Times…Director Xavier Giannoli, who started his career with short films and documentaries, has joined production house Irène for spot representation in France. His short Interview received the Palme d’Or du Court Metrage in Cannes in ’98. He made his feature debut with Les Corps Impatients in ’03. Giannoli’s commercialmaking endeavors have been for such clients as TF1 mobile and Ikea….
