In a pair of whimsical new :30 and :15 spots, McGuinness adds a human touch to the face of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 product. In the spot Deployment, one IT pro is packed with camping gear, prepping for a large, global deployment project. The other calm, collected IT pro inquires about the gear, stating he has his own project as well, and shows the other IT pro how his deployment will work better.

Showdown, the second spot, features dueling IT pros intent on one-upping each other with their web deployment strategies. What becomes clear in both spots is that one of the most effective ways to effortlessly manage, finish and deploy web applications is through Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7.0 technology, underscored by the appearance of the iconic, CGI created Windows Server 2008 robot “IT 24-7″ at the end of each spot.

When asked why Microsoft chose to run this particular advertising campaign, Microsoft Group Marketing Manager Colette Stallbaumer said, “We wanted to let Web designers and developers know that it’s possible to run both their ASP.NET and PHP apps on the Windows platform. We wanted to get that message out in a way that would really resonate with the people out there working with the web.”

Says Kommitted Executive Producer Marc Siegel, “The agency was keen on taking the action of this campaign out of the server room and into the real world, which gave Nathan plenty of room to stretch his live action directorial skill set.” Earlier phases of Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 campaign, which included the spots Imitator and Rodeo, both helmed by McGuinness, revolved primarily around the hero CGI robot IT 24-7.

“Working with Microsoft and the same creative team at McCann gave us the ability to experiment and expand on what we accomplished in the previous campaign. This time we went for a more organic approach,” says McGuinness. “Utilizing real locations and minimizing the green screen lent itself to the actors having an easier time finding their key moments. The end result was incredibly fun and inspiring.”

A holdover from the last campaign is the Windows Server 2008 robot IT 24-7, which was brilliantly animated by Pitor Karwas and his skilled team at VFX and design studio Asylum. The creative will run internationally from April 6 to the end of June 2009.

About Kommitted:
Production company Kommitted Films was founded in 2005 by Director Nathan McGuinness, the Academy Award and Bafta nominated Co-Founder/Creative Director of the VFX company, Asylum. Shortly after, in 2006, veteran Executive Producer Marc Siegel was brought on to expand the directorial roster, feature film slate, and music video presence. Over a short time period, Kommitted Films has numerous recent high-profile spots for Target (peterson milla hooks/MN), Nintendo (Leo Burnett/Chicago) and Blackberry (RIM) (Arc Worldwide/Chicago).

The Creds:
Client: Microsoft
Spot Title: Deployment, The Showdown
Air Date: April 6, 2009

Agency: McCann Worldgroup San Francisco
Executive VP/Chief Creative Officer: Rob Bagot
SVP/Executive CD(s): Josh Denberg, Paul Hirsch
SVP/ACD/Copywriter: Doug Green
SVP/ACD/Art Director: Michael Furlong
VP/ACD/Art Director: John Reid
Senior Broadcast Producer: Annie Uzdavinis
Senior Integrated Producer: Jose Rivera
Integrated Producer: Monica Velasquez
Software Architect: Todd Spatafore
Interactive Developers: Dan Magsino, Michael Trueman, Jacqueline Vo
Senior Interactive Designer: Ariel Chang

Prod Company: Kommitted
Director: Nathan McGuinness
DP: Sal Totino
EP: Marc Siegel
Producer: Jodi Fisher
Prod Designer: Aron Beroud

Post/Effects: Asylum
VFX Animation Supervisor: Piotr Karwas
Lead Inferno Artist: Miles Essmiller
EP: Michael Pardee
Producer: Ryan Meredith
Production Coordinator: Emily Hoovler
Bidding Producer: Michael Hanley
Compositing Supervisor: Tim Davies
Inferno Artist: Colleen Smith
3D Animator(s): Craig Van Dyke, Samir Lyons
3D Animator/Lighter: Michael Shelton
3D Lighter(s): Mathew Maude, Michael Sean Foley
3D Tracker(s): Eddie Offerman, Michael Lori
3D Rigger: Omar McClendon
Rotoscope Artist(s): Elissa Bello, Laura Murillo, James Lee
Lead Matte Painter/Designer: Tim Clark

Editorial: Cosmo Street
Editor: Katz
Assistant Editor: Sean Lagrange
EP(s): Yvette Cobarrubias, Jerry Sukys

Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Stephan Sonnenfeld

Sound Design: Machinehead
Sound Designer: Kip Smedley
Creative Director/ Sound Designer: Stephen Dewey
EP: Patty Chow Dewey

Audio Mix: Eleven Sound
Engineer/ Mixer: Jeff Payne
Asst. Engineer: Luis Rosario
EP: D.J. Fox-Engstrom

RELATED LINKS:
www.kommittedfilms.com

“Autodesk middleware products offer a solution to common runtime challenges, allowing development teams to concentrate on the creative work involved in authoring amazing new gameplay experiences,” said Marc Stevens, Autodesk vice president, games. “For example, HumanIK helps to alleviate the burden of large clip libraries by enabling procedural motion adaption, which reduces the number of clips animators need to produce and maintain. With Kynapse, programmers can avoid the development time and costs involved in writing custom runtime solutions for universal AI issues, like spatial awareness.”

Autodesk Kynapse 6: Put the Brain in Your Game Autodesk Kynapse middleware is a leading AI solution for game development and real-time simulations. With this middleware, developers can conveniently breathe life into games with characters that have spatial awareness, dynamic 3D pathfinding capabilities and team coordination.

Kynapse was recently adopted by Mythic Entertainment, an EA studio, for “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.” “The huge world of ‘Warhammer’ meant we needed a very robust pathfinding solution,” said Matt Shaw, CTO. “Our entire player movement system is built around enabling players to go wherever they are capable of reaching. Autodesk Kynapse gave us an algorithmic exploration solution that enabled our AI-driven actors to path with the same constraints and freedom as players.”

Autodesk Kynapse middleware is a world leading, artificial intelligence (AI) solution for game
development and real‐time simulations. The above scenario demonstrates three key functionalities of Kynapse: spatial reasoning (the bodyguards locate at run‐time, in 3D, threatening zones), team coordination (team members share information) and 3D pathfinding (bodyguards navigate in between the threat and the VIP).

Enhanced Dynamic 3D Pathfinding Kynapse 6 delivers best‐in‐class, dynamic 3D pathfinding that allow characters to find their way around 3D worlds that change. In the above image, planks are added and characters can find their way into the new areas automatically.

Flat Pathfinding Mode A new flat pathfinding mode significantly simplifies the implementation of 3D pathfinding using streamed navigation data.

Hierarchical 3D Pathfinding Kynapse 6 now includes a fully hierarchical 3D pathfinding solution that is capable of computing paths of limitless length on huge maps: maps that cannot possibly be loaded into memory in their entirety.Hierarchical 3D pathfinding computations use hierarchical data that describes large areas of differing resolutions. This data is automatically generated by the Kynapse Pathdata generation tool. Results are computed with different levels of detail, saving on CPU usage and memory consumption on the target platform.

The intelligent, high‐performance Autodesk Kynapse artificial intelligence (AI) engine was designed to handle large crowds in wide, complex, destructible environments. It supports automatic, hierarchical data generation, automatic data stitching and data streaming.

Kynapse 6 delivers new features that make it easier for game engineers to integrate the software and get results.
o Remote Debugger: The new remote debugging tool enables users to inspect
the state of the game variables, with an interactive 3D view of the debug information. Users can also record and replay sequences, while retaining access to the data in the recorded files
o New 3D Pathfinding Technology: The “flat” pathfinding technology
introduced in this release offers simplified data generation workflows, more flexible runtime data streaming, and the ability to add new paths on-the-fly at runtime.
o Improved MMO support: Data resources and runtime services can now be
shared across multiple Kynapse worlds, improving support for Massively Multiplayer On-line games
o Enhanced Dynamic 3D Pathfinding: With improved CPU performance and
granular control over memory consumption, characters can more easily avoid dynamic, movable obstacles
o Hierarchical 3D Pathfinding: Characters can now plan paths that span the
entire breadth of huge maps, even when those maps cannot be loaded in their entirety. The path is first computed at a low level of detail, and then refined opportunistically when more detailed data becomes available, keeping memory usage within set limits

For more information about Autodesk Kynapse 6, visit www.autodesk.com/kynapse.

AUTODESK HUMANIK 4
Autodesk HumanIK 4: Believable, Runtime Character Animation HumanIK animation middleware frees animators from having to produce every possible animation clip by procedurally adapting existing character animation to game environments at runtime. Also, the technology’s runtime retargeting enables developers to reuse banks of animation on characters of completely different scales and proportions. As a result, development teams can save time for more creative challenges.

Furthermore, HumanIK enhances animation systems by enabling characters to interact more realistically with the game environment. Characters place their feet correctly, climb walls and pick up objects, even when the game environment changes. With fewer gameplay constraints, HumanIK helps to bring games to life with more believable and immersive character animation experiences.

The latest release – Autodesk HumanIK 4 – delivers a User Guide and a new set of examples, integrated with the Trinigy Vision game engine. It also improves knee response to ankle rotations. For more information about HumanIK 4, visit www.autodesk.com/humanik.

Create high‐quality, believable character animation
HumanIK enhances animation systems by enabling characters to interact more realistically with the game environment. Characters place their feet correctly, climb walls, pick up weapons and objects, even when the game environment changes. With less gameplay constraints, HumanIK brings games to life with more believable and immersive character animation experiences.

Enhance animators’ productivity with procedural motion adaptation and retargeting.
By procedurally adapting existing character animation to game environments at run‐time, HumanIK frees animators from having to produce every combination of animation ‐‐ saving time for more creative challenges. Run‐time retargeting allows you to reuse banks of animation on characters of completely different scales and proportions.

New sample framework This version of HumanIK provides a new set of examples integrated with the Trinigy Vision™ game engine, showing how to carry out inverse kinematics and retargeting in a simple concrete implementation.

Platform Support and Availability
HumanIK 4 is now available. Autodesk anticipates that Kynapse 6 will be available during spring 2009. Both middleware products are optimized for PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii video game and entertainment consoles, as well as PCs running Windows or Linux. Kynapse is also optimized for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PSP game consoles.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art Digital Prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real.

Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, HumanIK and Kynapse are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

Main Header & Thumbnail Image Credit:
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning – courtesy of Mythic Entertainment, an EA Studio.