Western Images' Digital Sports Stars Kick Butt In Real World And Game Environment.
By SARAH WOODWARD
Is it live, or is it Cyber Jordan? In a series of four new ads for video game company EA Sports, live and cyber athletes, such as NBA great Michael Jordan, square off to demonstrate that EA’s video games pack a larger-than-life punch.
Created by San Francisco agency Odiorne Wilde Narraway + Partners (OWN+P), and with live-action footage directed by David Jellison of Tool of North America, Santa Monica, the ads, which have broken successively over the past few weeks, consist of "Cyber Jordan," "Cyber Ali," "Cyber Dale" and "Cyber Bettis." Digital production studio Western Images, San Francisco, created the 3-D computer animation and effects for the campaign, including freehand and rotoscope animation, texture mapping, compositing and Flame work.
The cyber athletes are animated in an intentionally polygonal look, yet have recognizable body language and facial expressions. "It’s this odd, ‘Which world is this character from?’ kind of thing," said Western Images head of CGI Matthew Fassberg. "The first time we were working on [the ads], it actually gave me the creeps to see this highly polygonal figure moving so realistically." He continued: "The interesting thing in all the spots is trying to achieve a seamless transition from the live action to the game. The trick is having enough realism to the [cyber] character that it seems to fit into the live action world, but then giving it enough of a game look so that you get that this character is of the game environment."
Each of the four :30s begin in the real world, into which a cyber athlete enters and interacts with real athletes in a competitive scenario. The ads then morph into video game footage, with the characters in action. For instance, "Cyber Jordan" opens on last year’s NBA MVP Tim Duncan shooting baskets by himself on an outdoor court. A voiceover reveals the player’s less-than-humble thoughts—"I got the ring. I was league MVP. I’m the man now. Who wants some of that?"—when Cyber Jordan appears out of
nowhere and, in the words of OWN+P partner/creative director Jeff Odiorne, takes Duncan to town. "We wanted to show that the cyber athletes are not only in the real world, but are actually better than the real athletes," he said. Soon after, the Duncan vs. Jordan face-off segues into the video game environment. The ad ends with the EA Sports logo. A voiceover says, "EA Sports. It’s in the game."
Careful steps were taken to make the live-action footage as authentic as possible in all of the spots. Duncan actually appears in "Cyber Jordan," while "Cyber Dale," featuring a polygonal version of NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, was shot at the Talladega Superspeedway and includes real race cars. "Cyber Bettis," starring Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis in cyber form, features authentic NFL uniforms for the Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs, which are worn by actors. "Cyber Ali," set in a boxing ring, shows a cyber Muhammad Ali going glove-to-glove with a real boxer. Fassberg said the challenge with that ad had to do with the cameras flashing from photographers in the audience. "You’ll notice that our digital character flashes along with the live-action set," he said. Odiorne added, "We try to maintain the authenticity. One of EA Sports’ main [strengths is that] it has always been the most authentic sports video game. To have the real Tim Duncan establishes an incredible sense of authenticity, and then the cyber character is a little more fun."
The campaign is a progression of sorts. Earlier EA Sports campaigns featured cyber characters, but often relied on stock footage from sporting events. Therefore the creative and animation teams had less control of the behavior and actions of the characters—both real and cyber. By shooting live-action footage, the creatives were able to control the storyline, and to also give the ads a more action-oriented or video game bent.
The production also benefited from what Odiorne characterized as a "really good synergy" among Jellison, his production crew, and the digital team at Western. Western artists were involved in preproduction and also attended the live action shoots, which made the CG work run smoother. Said Fassberg: "The preproduction challenge is in determining whether a spot is better done with freehand animation, or done as a rotoscope job. Then in production, it’s a technical challenge to make the physical look of the model have that creepy game realism and to get the lighting right."
Participating in both preproduction and the live-action shoot, he said, "is time incredibly well spent. It’s providing a double check for the agency and the director—that what they want to achieve in the final look is going to be doable with the footage they’re getting."
"Some form" of the cyber athlete campaign will continue, according to Odiorne. "We’re pretty psyched about them. Some form of these athletes taking over the world, where they are as legitimate as real athletes, will be part of future campaigns. How exactly it extends, I don’t know [yet]."
Tim Burton Discusses His Dread Of AI As An Exhibition of His Work Opens In London
The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits โ all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters "really disturbed me."
"It wasn't an intellectual thought โ it was just an internal, visceral feeling," Burton told reporters during a preview of "The World of Tim Burton" exhibition at London's Design Museum. "I looked at those things and I thought, 'Some of these are pretty good.' โฆ (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside."
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because "once you can do it, people will do it." But he scoffed when asked if he'd use the technology in this work.
"To take over the world?" he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
"I wasn't, early on, a very verbal person," Burton said. "Drawing was a way of expressing myself."
Decades later, after films including "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Beetlejuice," his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition's final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in... Read More