It was an impressive sight: 50,000 screaming fans gathered in a huge football stadium, watching 11 players face off against 35 others. A half-dozen other teammates and a coach stood on the sidelines, watching anxiously. It was the match of the century. But almost none of it was really happening.
Nineteen weeks of effort by 40 visual effects artisans and animators from Digital Domain, Venice, Calif., went into creating the stadium seen in "Gamebreakers," a large-scale Nike spot directed by David Fincher of bicoastal Anonymous Content for Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore. "Gamebreakers" was almost entirely manufactured with computer-generated imagery, most of which was seamless.
Both "Gamebreakers" and Nike’s "Speed Chain" (also through W+K and worked on by Digital Domain) were recently nominated for best visual effects in a commercial by the Visual Effects Society (VES), which is announcing the winners of its second annual competition on Feb. 18. Earlier, the two spots earned Fincher the DGA win for best commercial director of 2003, along with Xelibri’s "Beauty for Sale," from Mother, London (see separate story, p. 1).
"We’re doing things that are entirely CG and things that are combinations of CG and live action," notes Ed Ulbrich, senior VP/production and executive producer for commercials and music videos at Digital Domain. "People come to us with the really hardcore stuff. They know us for doing very high-end, photoreal CGI work. It’s not effects for effects sake. It’s a way of telling a more compelling story and cutting through the clutter on television."
Computer generated imagery can turn a cloud into a woman, or summer into winter. But there’s magic occurring in the real world too. Having survived the post-Sept. 11 days and the shaky economy, visual effects houses are predicting a good year for ’04, based on a stronger-than-expected ’03, followed by a busy January ’04.
"We’re coming out of a record year in 2003," says Ulbrich about Digital Domain. " ’02 was really a tough year, post-9/11, with agencies and production houses closing all around. In 2002, we hunkered down to weather the storm and in 2003, things improved until it was back like 1999 again. The economy picked up and advertising was back. People started to spend money again. We’re off to a good start in 2004."
"Business, in general, has been good for us lately," agrees Alan Barnett, partner/visual effects supervisor at Sight Effects, Venice, Calif. "It’s not the volume it had been, but we’ve ridden it out and done okay. This year started off very well. We’re very busy, so it appears at this point that things have perked up. Whether it continues is yet to be determined." Nonetheless, there has been a great deal of fallout from the poor economy of recent years. Many visual effects shops are saying that agency budgets are still tight, with some agencies reportedly attempting to clamp down on expensive effects spending.
"It is a very competitive environment," observes Rick Wagonheim, partner/senior executive producer at rhinofx, New York. "Margins are slim and the risks are huge. We’re in an extensive capitalization business because you’re constantly upgrading networks—hardware, software—so you’re always plowing money back into the companies to make it the kind of environment where clients want to work, and artists want to work. Budgets will continue to be tight and people will continue to have to work extremely hard to get whatever jobs they get."
"Last year, a lot of companies were desperate for work and were offering their services for very little money," says Jon Collins, managing director of Framestore CFC, New York, the recently opened stateside office of Framestore CFC, London. (The latter is noted for high-end visual effects, including Johnnie Walker’s "Fish," out of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, London, which was nominated for outstanding visual effects in a commercial by the VES.) "That made it crazy," Collins adds. "Agencies were saying, ‘We want to work with you,’ but we couldn’t match the prices."
"There’s been a tremendous downward pressure on budgets, and clients want more and more for less and less," says Justin Booth-Clibborn, executive producer at Psyop, New York. "You do it or someone else down the road is going to do it. Clients are a little less discerning about the quality and more interested in the bottom line, so we have to be more competitive on price."
To keep within budget constraints, everyone says the key to getting work (and keeping it coming in) is to, in Collins’ words, "work smarter. It’s imperative that people shoot and prepare things correctly. There’s a massive savings to be had where everyone’s onboard up front with the correct technique, so we don’t have to do that old ‘fix it in post’ routine," he says. "The problem is when people don’t have a clear idea of what they want to achieve, so they want to see four or five different approaches … because they want to show their client a range of possibilities and not one clear vision." Competitive concerns have also led many shops to strengthen their hand by diversifying into other areas besides commercials—or to make plans for it.
"Diversification is important in any business as long as it’s focused," says Wagonheim, who reports that his company started branching out to features and video game work in ’03. "We create visual imagery, and that can work across many platforms."
One concern is that the talent pool is smaller than it should be, and will probably be further constricted as the effects of the H-1B visa cap start being felt. H-1B visas are granted to high-tech workers, such as visual effects artists, from outside the U.S.
The current annual cap on H-1B visas has plummeted from 195,000 in ’02-’03 to 65,000 for the current fiscal year (Oct. 1, ’03-Sept. 30, ’04). Over the years, H-1Bs have been used by high tech businesses—including visual effects and computer animation shops—that need workers from outside the U.S. to help offset the talent shortage.
Several visual effects studios have expressed concern over the prospect of the annual allocation being cut by two-thirds. Since the economy has begun to improve, and several shops have noted an increase in workload, the question is whether or not a yearly allocation of 65,000 will meet the tech sector’s needs.
"The H-1B visa cap is an issue that coincides with the uptick in business," affirms Ulbrich. "We have over six-hundred people working here now [including artists working on feature films], but we’re still maxed. The supply of digital artists does not meet the demand, so we’re forced to go overseas, which is more and more difficult because of the cap. We found ourselves recruiting heavily last year in anticipation of that. When we recruit overseas, we are looking for the top-tiered people. If you go through the time, effort and expense to bring people to the U.S., you want to get the highest caliber of talent possible. Those are people in high demand. It’s a very competitive environment right now."
"I don’t think it’s been easy to find the right talent," notes Bryan Godwin, CG supervisor at Charlex, New York. "New York is a small section of the post industry, so it’s a little more difficult getting people out here than it would be in Los Angles or San Francisco."
One challenge in finding the right talent is that creating effects for commercial work is highly specialized. "Commercials are entirely different from films," says Ulbrich. "If you work on a film—we’ve got a film right now where there’s one hundred and forty artists on it—I would argue that two-thirds of those people will never see or meet the director. On a commercial, the director is sitting in the room with them every day. When you’re working on commercials, your ability on the box is about half the job; the other half is being able to work effectively with filmmakers and agency people, and being able to get conflicting direction from multiple people and satisfy them all and create miracles on an impossible schedule."
Trends
Most shops are banking on the power of 3-D CGI to build business. Just three years ago, for instance, Psyop was creating fully animated pieces, but now the house is finding that a great deal of live action is being incorporated into animation.
"You can create anything from a fantasy character to a CG elephant to an entire CG world that fools the eye entirely," states Todd Mueller, creative director at Psyop. "The question now becomes about design. It’s not just about turning a cloud into a woman, but about what that woman looks like. The effects now are depending more on the idea, whereas a few years ago it was about what’s the coolest thing we can make, what’s the shiniest, most impressive CG thing we can think of?"
To capitalize on the 3-D, photoreal trend, Charlex set up a 3-D-only division two years ago to cater to a growing market of increased CGI work in spots. The decision has paid off in more work, even during tougher times. "That department is about twenty-five strong now, and takes up the whole third floor," says Chris Byrnes, president of Charlex. "It’s been a whole new avenue for jobs to come here. That’s been an explosion for us."
Indeed, as directors and creatives grow more savvy about the possibilities, they are willing to use the medium in more challenging ways. "There are commercials where you’re not aware of any CG, ever," says Ulbrich. "When you realize how it was done, that two-thirds of the spot is entirely CG, you say, ‘Wow.’ " Ulbrich believes that photoreal CGI is on the rise because directors and creatives are becoming more comfortable about its uses and possibilities. "There are a lot of directors who have become very sophisticated and comfortable with using those tools," he relates.
To create the Cadillac "Magic" spot—out of Chemistri, Troy, Mich., and directed by Nick Piper of Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif.—the artists at rhinofx changed a daytime shoot into night, and summer into winter. The alterations were so successful, in fact, that when rhinofx put the spot on its reel, some potential clients asked what had been done. "They don’t know where the live action stops and the visual effects start," explains Wagonheim. "We’re known for our photorealism. If digital work looks digital, then you’ve failed.
"If I see any trend, it’s a continuing trend of photorealism in CG," he continues. "People are becoming more and more confident that you can do anything. We’re in negotiations right now on something that could be shot live or done in CGI. The response from the agency is that they don’t know about CGI because ‘the creative director is old school. He believes in shooting everything live.’ It was interesting that they used the term ‘old school.’ Live action is now being referred to as old school because in many situations it is old school.
