Digital Domain created an oppressive computer generated (CG) world to showcase Toyota’s new GT86 in a new U.K. spot titled “The Real Deal” from Stink director Adam Berg and Saatchi & Saatchi London. Berg, working with Saatchi & Saatchi’s creative team, tapped Digital Domain to tell a story that mimics the car’s key value–breaking out of a monotonous synthetic existence with the power, control and excitement of real life. Expertly wielding Digital Domain’s deep digital production toolset, Berg worked with artists to create everything from digital characters to a stunning full virtual world.
The spot promotes the new Toyota GT86, a sports car that puts control in the hands of the driver rather than computerized systems. Led by VFX supervisor Vernon Wilbert, Digital Domain supervised the shoot and helped realize the vision of the Saatchi creative team and director Berg. The ambitious project was completed by a team of 18 artists in eight weeks thanks to the efficiencies afforded by Digital Domain’s production-proven processes for building digital characters, cars and environments.
Wilbert said, “Because Digital Domain has such deep resources, we were able to handle everything required for this complex spot — from previs to virtual production, live-action integration, 2D and 3D animation and tracking, photo-real hair and cloth, and more — without any dedicated R&D. We were able to repurpose about 95% of the assets for this spot from our libraries, which really helped in terms of cost savings and efficiency. We leveraged the digital human pipeline that has been developed at DD over projects like Benjamin Button, TRON: Legacy and virtual Tupac; we were truly standing on the shoulders of giants.”
The Real Deal” is Berg’s second collaboration with Digital Domain and Wilbert. They teamed up in 2011 for the “Dust to Dust” commercial for the Gears of War video game franchise. Wilbert said, “Adam knows exactly how to leverage digital production and all that it offers. He spent hours on our virtual stage framing up shots within the digital sets.”
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