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.

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