April 5, 2007

SMOKE & MIRRORS HANDLES VFX FOR HD PUMA PROJECT

WATCH THE MAKING-OF VIDEO

The spots were shot in 24p HD and show a young man and women against a stark white background. In Stairs, the two youths vault a row of black discs that are revealed to be perforations in his Puma shoes. The woman zips up her yellow jacket zipper in Zipper, converging her path with his as they walk. In Rain, the drawstrings from his Puma jacket quickly compact the tennis court they're on, while in Cliff, a host of blue bars becomes a massive graph equalizer for them to jump onto and then walk away.

Senior Flame artist Brad Scott and 3D artist Kevin Sheperd were part of a tight team that worked closely with on-set technical supervisor Ed Chapman, LNWs producer Alex Vlack and @radical media director Andrew Zuckerman. Footage was shot by DP Paul Cameron on Panavision's Genesis digital camera.

"We had to lift the live action off of a white cyc and replace it with a pristine white background," notes Scott. "No grain, combined with the noiseless shadow areas you get from the Genesis camera, made for perfect natural-looking integration with the CGI."    

Cliff was the most demanding of the four. "The challenge with Cliff was that separate motion control camera setups - that weren't originally planned to work together - needed to be combined into one seamless move. Ultimately, I worked out a more dynamic transition than anything that could have been achieved in camera. That's the magic of Flame." 

Bug Editorial's Josh Towvin cut the spots.