Computer Graphics World

May 2009 16 In-camera VFX A s a visual effects artist, you're often asked by an agency or a director to execute one of those never-before-seen shots that become the visual focal piece of a campaign or commercial. Sometimes budget and time constraints threaten to prevent you from producing something truly groundbreaking. However, by moving visual effects upstream to be part of preproduction, and applying a heavy dose of creative ingenuity, a seemingly impossible shot can be executed seamlessly. On a recent commercial titled "In the Orbit" for the new Toyota Venza and directed by Malcolm Venville of Anonymous Content, I was asked by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi/LA to provide on-set VFX supervi- sion to help orchestrate an idea that had been bandied about by the creative team for some time, but was never realized. The Car that Revolves Around You e Venza is Toyota's new crossover vehicle billed as "70 percent car and 30 percent SUV." ree spots comprise the campaign: "Venza World" (aired starting December 22), "In the Orbit" (Jan- uary 18), and "Push It Along" (February 14). For "In the Orbit," the agency had an idea for a seamless 360- degree tracking shot around a moving car as it travels from one locale to another. ey wanted to achieve this shot without using a fully CG vehicle as the "picture car" (industry parlance for the featured vehicle in a car commercial). My team and I were brought onboard to collaborate closely with Venville to figure out a way to capture this shot. e result would show a man's life accelerated, as seen via set transitions between the same car and different environ- ments, with the car always being driven by the same person. At Digital Domain, we've been producing computer-generated cars for years for both film and commercial work, including nu- merous spots with Venville. We have a tried-and-true automobile pipeline that lets us do this kind of work very efficiently. For Toy- ota Venza, however, the agency had a strict creative brief dictating that everything was to be shot in camera. is, of course, brought its own unique set of production challenges. Shoot the Impossible Shot Venville has a photography background and is known for produc- ing visually compelling images. I've worked with him for years and with Saatchi for a decade, so there's a level of trust we share that enables us to present with confidence creative solutions for extremely challenging shots that may at first seem impossible on the surface. Together, Venville and I considered several possible scenarios for capturing this tricky shot, including placing a car on a big truck and then setting up a huge rig that would also be connected to the truck. But this solution required lots of heavy equipment to be transported, and background location scenes become problematic with a huge rig. So we ended up using a Russian Arm camera- crane system, commonly used to shoot footage of moving cars. A Russian Arm is typically mounted on a car, which drives side VFX By AndRew ekSneR Andrew Eksner is a visual effects supervisor and Flame artist at Digital Domain, a digital production studio based in Venice, California. Digital Domain accomplished a 360-degree tracking shot around a real car as it moves between locations for a Toyota Venza commercial.

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