SHORT CUTS
Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design (RVED), New York, created 3-D animation using the Inferno for a FOX Sports Net ad promoting its NHL coverage. RVED’s partner/Inferno artist Vico Sharabani created a full character animation rig within Inferno and used it to show x-ray effects for 3-D skeleton models. Throughout the commercial, an x-ray shot reveals the athletic abilities of hockey players by depicting how their skating, checking and falling impacts their internal organs. Sharabani’s rig used tracked points from the live-action shots to calculate the position and motion of a 3-D skeleton. The development of the rig was possible thanks to the latest features of Inferno, including expressions, deformations and the robust batch module. All the elements were modeled in Houdini and, in order to keep consistency with the look, were imported to Inferno to be animated and shaded. RVED’s Michael Miller and Rick Wagonheim were partners/executive producers.
Los Angeles-based Why Not Coco cut a pair of Hispanic market spots for Jack in the Box via Los Angeles agency Enlace Communications. "Shower" features a Psycho-style scene in which an oversized golf ball-headed Jack-holding a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger-barges into a bathroom while a woman is showering. "Nightmare" shows Jack Jr. tossing and turning in his sleep. When he screams, Jack arrives on the scene to calm his son down-it turns out that little Jack was dreaming of being chased by a "clown with a burger." The commercials were directed by Carlos Quiroz of Xperience, Coconut Grove, Fla. Robert Levy edited the :30s, with Lara Ramirez assisting.
Blur Studio, Venice, Calif., has been contracted by Paramount Parks to produce a stereoscopic, computer-animated ride film based on the Nickelodeon cartoon series, SpongeBob SquarePants. Park patrons will don 3-D glasses to experience the film in three dimensions. Blur’s animation team will work directly with Nickelodeon in adapting the SpongeBob characters to the ride format. The characters will be executed as computer animation while retaining the look of the cel-animated series. Blur will also produce a computer animated pre-show film. The attraction is slated to debut at Paramount’s North American theme parks in the first quarter of 2003.
MUSIC NOTES
Atlanta-headquartered Oasis Recording mixed the final audio for the documentary Georgia’s Civil War. The four-part series, airing on Georgia Public Television, tells the story of the Civil War’s impact on the state’s people. Oasis owner/operator Bob Gillespie was the mixer on the project.
Duotone Audio Group, New York, has made its music library available for the advertising, broadcast network and feature film markets. Comprised of more than 2,000 tracks that were custom-created for specific pictures and advertising concepts, Duotone’s music library includes such genres as mambo, mariachi, drum and bass, techno, big band, and orchestral.
David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA), New York, composed and arranged the track for Burlington Coat Factory’s "Cafe." Created by Norman J. Stevens Advertising, South Orange, N.J., the :30 was directed by Bill Hudson of Islander Films, New York. "Cafe" features a woman at an outdoor restaurant who shows off her Burlington bargains to her male companion. DHMA’s Ben Zebelman was composer/arranger for the spot.
IN GEAR
Chyron Corporation, Melville, N.Y., has released Version 13.00 software for its iNFiNiT! line of character generators which includes the MAX!> and MAXINE!. Version 13.00 features Lyric MC, a Windows application for offline editing of iNFiNiT! family messages. Lyric MC is based on Lyric, Chyron’s graphics authoring playback software for the Duet family of graphics and animation systems. The new Version also comes with a demo of the ticker application NewsCrawl, which automates the gathering of information from such sources as automated news/sports/financial feeds, file servers, serial port, Web pages, internal database, and manual keyboard entry. Version 13.00 also includes WiNFiNiT! Support for the Duet keyboard.
Quantel announced that Los Angeles-based Moviola will be its first U.S.-based channel partner for distribution of its new line of generationQ SD and HD nonlinear editing and effects system. Offering demonstrations, sales, and certified training and support, the Moviola partnership is the first of a number of channel agreements targeted for major cities across the U.S. In addition to eQ, other Quantel products slated to be sold through the reseller network are QEdit Pro,the QPaintbox Pro and gQ.
