About the Movie:

G.I. Joe will be a modern telling of the “G.I. Joe vs. Cobra” storyline and its compelling characters that Hasbro created 25 years ago. The premise of this fantasy is the story of the G.I. Joe team, led by Duke, and their “fight for freedom wherever there is trouble” against the evil Cobra Commander and his Cobra force. This storyline was an instant hit with kids in the early 1980s, spawning a highly popular 3-3/4-inch action figure line, comic book collection and animated series. The G.I. Joe team will not be based in Brussels. Instead, they will be based out of the “Pit” as they were throughout the 1980s comic book series. And, in keeping with the G.I. Joe vs. Cobra fantasy, the movie will feature characters and locations from around the world. Duke, the lead character and head of the G.I. Joe team, will embody the values of bravery and heroism that the first generation of G.I. Joe figures established.

Some of the visual effects post houses used in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra are MPC, Framestore, Digital Domain, Cafe FX and Pixel Playground. See the IMDB link for a full production cast/crew list.

About MPC
MPC creates high-end digital visual effects and computer animation for the feature film, advertising, music and television industries. With studios based in Soho London, Santa Monica LA and Vancouver Canada, this award winning facility has worked on many high profile projects including The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Quantum of Solace and the classic Cadbury ‘Gorilla’s Moment’.
For more information about MPC visit: www.moving-picture.com.

About Digital Domain
Digital Domain is an Academy Award-winning digital production studio with a reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual effects for 65+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12 billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual Effects. A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek, Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for Digital Domain’s advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games, advertising and the web closer together. Digital Domain is privately held and based in Venice, California. www.digitaldomain.com

About Framestore:
Framestore has been working in digital film and video for over 20 years now, creating original and astonishing work that has helped make it the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe.

Among Framestore’s notable commercial credits are Smirnoff Sea (winner, 2007 VES ‘Visual Effects in a Commercial’), The Chemical Brothers The Salmon Dance, Casino Royal – Title Sequence, Vauxhall C’mon campaign, Sure to Go Wild, Guinness noitulovE, Johnnie Walker Fish, Levi’s Odyssey and Guinness Surfer.

Since 2004, Framestore NY has been flying the flag in the world of US commercials, landing work for clients such as GE, FedEx, Hoover, Pepsi, Nike, Smirnoff, and Coca-Cola, and winning top awards including both an Emmy and a VES in 2006.

Framestore’s movie portfolio includes work on such films as The Dark Knight, Australia, A Quantum of Solace, Wanted, Prince Caspian, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Children of Men and Superman Returns. http://www.framestore-cfc.com/

About Cafe Fx
CafeFX is an award-winning feature film visual effects facility offering visual effects production and supervision, CG character creation, and 3D animation. Founded in 1993 by Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, CafeFX is located in a 36,000-square-foot studio on an eight-acre campus in the heart of Santa Barbara County. The company’s credits include Spider-Man™ 3, Ghost Rider, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Departed, Eragon, Sin city, King Kong, Memoirs Of A Geisha and The Aviator. www.cafefx.com

About Pixel Playground:
Pixel Playground is a visual effects company dedicated to creating the highest level of visual effects for its clients. Pixel Playground offers a comprehensive list of services ranging from on set visual effects supervision to all visual post production needs. These services include 2D digital compositing, and a full compliment of CGI services. visit: http://www.pixelplaygroundinc.com

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Visual Effects Credits from IMDB

An ambitious and technical film, created and directed by Marco Puig, Framestore were required to split the VFX work for ‘Untouchable’ into pre and post shoot. Puig wanted to do as much work in camera as possible, so the Framestore team used back projection to create much of the space-scapes before the shoot. This work was then cut into three films – back projection, side projection and reflection projection to put onto the glass spheres.

After the shoot, Framestore set about creating a number of dramatic and exciting wide shots. One involves the glass pods containing the girls entering the earth’s atmosphere, as seen from the earth’s orbit. As the spheres streak through the sky narrowly avoiding an airplane, they burn up like meteors and hurtle towards the planet’s surface.

Agency Grey Worldwide (NY) and Director Randy Krallman for Smuggler have done this triumphantly in two new spots that they unveiled during the 2009 Super Bowl. 401K and Wings both feature our youthful hero (voiced, as previously, in a superbly laid-back performance by the director) but in each case there is a second character – a golfing rival and a keen amateur vocalist.

To add more would be to spoil the fun, but suffice to say that the droll tone is once more note perfect. Senior Flame Artists Alex Thomas and Raul Ortego led Framestore’s efforts, supported by Tom Leckie and Mindy Dubin.

“As with Trading and Banking, we had a large task to complete in a very short time. The new elements of a longer monologue and interaction with a second character added to the challenge but, as always, our amazing team of Flame Artists delivered brilliant work.”
Laney Gradus Head of Production, Framestore

Over the next few weeks moo2u will feature each film nominated within the ‘Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture’ category. The films nominated in this category are: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian, Hellboy II – The Golden Army, Cloverfield and Iron Man.

‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” is the second of C.S. Lewis’s classic fantasy novels to be taken to the big screen. The film was directed by Andrew Adamson with cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub and was released worldwide in the summer of 2008.

The story begins for the four Pevensie children a year after their return from their heroic adventures in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe”. However time passes at a different pace in the land of Narnia and when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy return 1,300 years have passed and Narnia is in grave peril.

Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the Narnian throne, is on the run, pursued by evil forces lead by his wicked Uncle King Miraz. In desperation Caspian magically summons one time rulers of Narnia, the Pevensie children, who find an even greater test of their faith and courage awaits them.

The mamouth CGI effects project required for this film was led by visual effects supervisors Dean Wright and Wendy Rogers who spent over two years overseeing a team of over 1,000 digital artists around the world. Dean Wright also worked as the lead Visual Effects supervisor on ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe’.

With Michael Stipe’s arresting song, Until the Day is Done, playing throughout the spot, we are left simultaneously bewildered and proud. Bewildered at the astonishing violence in our world, and proud of the selfless among us attempting to hinder its relentless surge. Seven racially diverse individuals are superimposed onto scenes of violence wherein they appear to stand between aggressors and their targets; releasing prisoners, removing nooses off necks and withdrawing weapons from children. The heroes are placed in the heart of nations that are war-torn and plagued with cruelty, in order to attest our own capacity to protect human rights.

SMNY’s Sean Broughton acknowledges, “This was an opportunity to do some real good, so pulling out all the stops was the only way to go. When the time came, I met with Director Kim Gehrig in London to work out how every scene and element should be shot. The seven scenes were split up amongst the three post companies involved in the project SMNY, Rushes and Framestore. We had to complete the work in record time, but the ego-less efforts made by all was a joy to be a part of.”

“Interaction was a key aspect of the film, so each ‘hero’ was shot against green screen, with the distance traveled, terrain, camera heights and angles calculated prior to shoot. Lighting was matched to the pre-selected background scenes and everything was shot with locked off camera in HD to allow for movement later in post. Kim wanted to make sure the heroes stood out, so it was an old VHS machine that finished the catalogue of work executed in each scene. The hero character was played off to the old tape format and then matted back in.”

But a bee spots him, and rushes off to roust the rest of the hive. A large swarm sets off in pursuit of the hiker, whose plight is not helped by a rock which magically rolls itself in front of him. A tree then picks itself up by the roots and waddles over to give the poor schmuck a smack into the fast flowing river at the bottom of the scree. Finally he is set upon by a pair of eagles. At last, we see the guy licking his wounds and a beaver adds insult to injury by laughing at him.

The message delivered by titles on screen is: “Wear the new Earthkeepers, made with recycled materials, or nature might get its own back.”

The spot was shot in a Central California National Park over a week earlier this year, with VFX Supervisor Stephane Allender on hand to oversee the necessary effects elements and plates, as well as directing a second camera unit.

With time the enemy on the post schedule, work was carefully allocated between 2 and 3D teams. As well as the swarm, the 3D team also created the roots of the aggressive tree, whilst the tree itself was shot on blue screen and brought to life in Flame. Other location-based blue screen work included the initial fall off the mountainside, achieved with the help of an air cannon, a stuntman and plenty of cushions; and establishing shots of the eagles.

Framestore also provided post for a companion spot for Timberland – Podium, directed by Ivan Bird for Rattling Stick, which had no VFX element, requiring only the company’s excellent Telecine services.

CREDITS
AGENCY: Leagas Delaney London
AGENCY PRODUCER: Michelle Hickey
AGENCY CREATIVES: Tim Delaney & Rob Burleigh
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Biscuit Filmworks / Independent (London)
DIRECTOR: Noam Murro (Friend)
PRODUCER: Jay Veal (Biscuit Filmworks) / Jani Guest (Independent)
VFX: Framestore
TELECINE: Framestore

(article by CGnews)

The shoots were attended by the spot’s 3D Supervisor Diarmid Harrison-Murray, TD Paul Denhard and the company’s Director of Visual Effects, Tim Webber.

The most challenging shots for the Framestore team were those where real actors had to be wed with their CG wings, working with whatever had been captured on the blue screen shoot. For longer shots they could use pure CG, which offered them a much greater degree of freedom and flexibility.

Swarms and flocks of creatures are regular requests for the 3D team, who have animated everything from bees to beer labels, butterflies to gift wrapping. But, as Harrison-Murray points out, each spot brings new wrinkles to this familiar trope.

The 3D team animated and rendered the wings in Maya, with Houdini’s strengths in particle work making it invaluable for the wider flock shots. But, as Harrison-Murray is quick to point out, the spot was never intended to be a CG ‘showcase’ – it was vital that his team’s work blend seamlessly into the overall mood and feel of New Light. To further this end, Senior Colourist Dave Ludlam created a TK that aimed to help bed in the work, whilst maintaining the natural feel that Barber had created.

An extra wrinkle to Framestore’s work was added by the creation of tube station escalator content. Handled by the company’s Digital team, headed by Mike Woods, a set of animated 3D moth flocking images were rendered. These featured a group of 5 moths flitting around in a pattern. The Digital team then doubled and tripled these up, also swapping them around to create a variety of patterns for the DEPs (Digital Escalator Panels).

CREDITS:
AGENCY: Adam & Eve London
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Ben Priest
AGENCY PRODUCER: Leila Bartlam
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Knucklehead
DIRECTOR: Daniel Barber
PRODUCER: Matthew Brown

VFX: Framestore
TELECINE: Framestore

(Article by: CGnews.com)

Anyone familiar with the South African urban environment will tell you that the ‘No’ sign is a pretty constant feature, from ‘No Crossing’ to ‘No Photography’, signs telling you what you can’t do have always loomed large in the country’s consciousness. Neotel is competing with state monopolist Telkom, whose copper wire-based infrastructure is aging rapidly.

Neotel wanted a way of illustrating the speed and freedom that their new, fibre optic technology offers, and the idea of the sign figures breaking free was born. Aware of the company’s work in 2005 on Hector’s Life for Renault Espace, which won numerous international awards, the director producer team at Riverstone Films approached Framestore with their director treatment. But Hector involved just one paper figure – No Restrictions had a much more ambitious brief.

Opening with a couple of establishing shots of the city, No Restrictions starts off with a single figure peeping around a street corner. As he steps out he throws off the last scrap of the red ‘No’ strip. He passes a café window with a ‘No Dogs’ sign, and the dog scurries out (with the aid of the proprietor’s broom), bowling into a ‘No Hawking’ sign’s figure, who has set up his stall outside the café. From there we cut from scene to scene of our ‘No’ people enjoying all of the activities that have hitherto been disallowed them – ball games, cycling, skateboarding, swimming, and so on. The icons are able to do whatevery they want, “We’re often told what we can’t do,” says the voiceover, “Today, we’re telling you that you can.”

A three day shoot took place in Durban earlier this year to capture the raw plates and essential lighting information, attended for Framestore by VFX Supervisor Simon French and Inferno Artist Jonathan Hairman. Subsequent post production on the spot took some 12 weeks.

Compositing the figures, as well as complementing the environments with touches such as reflections in the window glass and the creation of a warm looking sunset glow at the end, were Inferno Artists Jonathan Hairman and George Roper. The neg was graded by Dave Ludlam, with final DCP duties handled by Steffan Perry.

CREDITS:
AGENCY: TBWA\Hunt Lascaris
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Riverstone Films
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Holden
PRODUCER: Saffron Doran

VFX: Framestore
TELECINE: Framestore

(Article by: CGnews.com)

Cinema again takes the idea of car as entertainment centre and runs with it, as the gang head for a local cinema. But they are only stopping by for supplies of popcorn and soda. Sprinting back into their car, they fire up the DVD player and settle down for the main feature, soon to be joined by a passing usherette.

VIDEO HERE

Denhard believes that the sort of material the creatives are coming up with also reflects the ease borne of familiarity with the technical challenges of these ultra-realistic cloth simulation puppets.

CREDITS
AGENCY: DLKW
PRODUCER: Christian Lobo
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Outsider
DIRECTORS: Dom & Nic
PRODUCER: John Madsen

VFX: Framestore
TELECINE: Framestore

(Article by: CGnews.com)