This visual tour de force meshing live action and 3D is vaguely reminiscent of the classic Alfred Hitchcock scene in which we look from the ground up through a glass coffee table, gaining insights from that down below perspective into the plot-advancing action unfolding above us.
Well consider this an exponentially amplified, on-steroids version of that POV, except instead of a coffee table, we’re looking up through the glass at a NASCAR speedway stadium and track, seeing the high-energy action from a down-under perspective that’s exhilarating.
From this POV, we see the cars racing, a pit crew doing its thing replete with lugnuts falling down towards us, jet planes zipping overhead, a car crash into a sidewall and other action,
The message: With the February airing of the Daytona 500, we can see NASCAR like we’ve never seen it before–namely in HD on FOX.
FOX Sports Marketing was the client with FOX Sports Design, Los Angeles, serving as the agency with a creative team that included exec VP marketing Eric Markgraaf, senior VP/creative director Robert Gottlieb, creative director and live-action director Mark Simmons, VP on air promotions Bill Battin, editor Kirk Smith, Flame artist Kevin Prendiville, sound designers Mic Brooling and Jim Mitchell. Live-action DP was Tom McGrath.
The VFX house was La Huella in Madrid, with 3D/2D supervision by Jerome Debeve and Juan Antonio Ruiz, a coterie of 3D artists consisting of Antonio Lado, David Gonzalez, Gerardo Arpide, Miquel Angel Corominas, Vanesa Iglesias, Martin Contel and Cesar Eiji, 2D/post artists Regis Barbey, Thiago Dantas and Ricardo Gomez, with a story/textures team that includes Santiago Verdugo, David Escribano and Paco Rodriguez.
The action is set to the tune “World Domination” by Ash.
The live-action scenes were filmed by Simmons in L.A. while La Huella’s 3D team was off and running back in Madrid.
“This was one of the more difficult shoots we’ve ever undertaken,” said Simmons; “safely suspending actors 14 feet off the ground on a glass floor was a huge logistical problem.”
La Huella’s team, led by Debève, brought this world to life with an array of beautiful flourishes and wonderfully detailed nuances in every frame.
Among the key technical hurdles La Huella faced and cleared was applying each cars “skin” to the car models. “La Huella nailed getting the skins outfitted properly on the CG cars right out of the gate,” said Bill Battin; Fox Sports Marketing VP.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More