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postings EFFECTING IMMORTALS S AN FRANCISCO — Tippett Studio (www. tippett.com) provided visual effects for the fantasy-action film Immortals, directed by Tarsem Singh and starring Henry Cavill and Mickey Rourke. The project marks one of Tip- pett's first jobs using motion capture technol- ogy, allowing them to combine live actors with CG characters. Mocap technology was used to create the epic battle scene between the Gods and the Titans. Fluid dynamics in Side Effects Houdini and Autodesk Maya were used to create enhanced blood effects, in addition to practical fluids. Body parts were all modeled and integrated into the special rigs for the wounds. In addition to the 70-shot Titan battle, Tippett also animated a canine creature, called the mongrel, which appears in many shots in the scene. The studio also contributed to the Sistine Chapel shot at the end, which features numerous Titans and Gods battling in the sky. ADULT BEHAVIOR N EW YORK — The Phosphene (www.phosphenefx.com) visual effects team completed work on more than 80 shots for Young Adult, a dark comedy-drama starring Charl- ize Theron, Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt. Directed by Jason Reitman, the film centers around Theron's character, who returns to claim an old flame — even though he's mar- ried and has a new baby. Creative director/visual effects supervisor John Bair and visual effects producer Vivian Connolly led the Phosphene team, which served as the only effects vendor on the film. One particularly challenging scene involved creating a deformed limb for Oswalt's character. Bair and Phosphene's lead digital artist, Aaron Raff, were on set to place tracking markers on Oswalt's leg. Another scene between Theron and Wilson required heavy greenscreen replacement with the addition of panoramic windows and imagery onto television monitors. The studio used Nuke X from The Foundry, Adobe After Effects CS5, Autodesk Flame and PCs running Windows 7 64-bit in the execution of this project. The Phosphene creative team included compositors Scott Winston and Connie Conrad, Flame artist Peter Amante, and compositing intern Andrew Yates. Deluxe in NYC was responsible for the digital intermediate and lab processing. GAGA'S WORLD N EW YORK — Tim Richardson directed a new video that appears in the "Gaga's Workshop" windows at Bar- ney's on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. The digital uni- verse transforms, with nebula and stars colliding to form Lady Gaga's face and shoulders. The stars continue to col- lide until they complete the celestial body that is the artist. Lady Gaga — Constellation was produced by AWhiteLa- belProduct for agency Q4 The Digital. The Mill in Los Ange- les provided visual effects. Creative director Andrew Proctor was lead 3D artist. Matt Longwell, Yorie Kumalasari, Alex Moaveni, Josh Hatton and Tom Graham also worked on the 3D. The Mill used Autodesk Maya, Side Effects Houdini and Mental Images Mental Ray for all of the 3D. PC/Linux workstations running Nuke were used for the compositing. Adobe Photoshop, running on Macs, was used to create the matte-painting. Proctor handled Nuke compos- iting, with Dag Ivarsoy also contributing. SHARP AS A KNIFE N EW YORK — Working through Charleston's Rawle Murdy, director Joshua Frankel helmed a three-spot campaign for knife maker Ka-Bar, which represents the 125-year-old company's first ad campaign. The spots each shows the upper torso of a man — a hunter, a hiker and a war veteran. As the narrator tells of a survival story, imagery appears on the torso in the form of tattoos. In each case, the narrator was able to overcome incredible danger thanks in part to a Ka-Bar knife. The first in the campaign, D-Day, tells of a private in the 29th Infantry Division of the US Army, who recalls storming the beaches of Normandy and taking a bullet in the shoulder. Hiking tells of a father and son who get trapped in a blizzard but are able to use a knife to fashion a shelter from the storm. Boar Hunting tells the tale of a wild boar that chases a hunter up a tree. Zach Shukan of NYC's Omega Darling (www.omegadarling.com) helped troubleshoot the project, which involved generating body scans of the models' torsos. Three illustrators were used for the tattoo art. The illustrators generated two to three keyframes representing the tattoo imagery for their assigned spot. Hiking illustrator Damara Kaminecki works in woodblock prints, which added a bold style. Omega Darling created hand animation based on the tattoo designs. Nuke was used for compositing. 44 Post • January 2012 www.postmagazine.com