Computer Graphics World

April 2009 12 ments, stock footage, and lots of paint, re- lighting, and digital elements. Filmworkers Club assigned a team of five composi- tors—Heidi Anderson, Chris Ryan, Rick ompson, Jen Paine, and Churchill— who worked not just on "Circus," but on a total of nine Super Bowl spots in-house. According to Churchill, the most chal- lenging scene was when the Clydesdale jumps over the canyon. "He was shot jumping over a fence," he explains, "but we had to fly the horse across the entire can- yon." Using bi-cubic warping, a feature in Autodesk's Smoke, Churchill was able to make the horse look as if it was jumping outward rather than over. "It's a detailed stretch, but you can only stretch parts of the picture," Churchill says. "ere were tons of rotoscoping to get rid of the fence that was blocking part of the horse's leg, which I made up with bits of cloning, tracking, and paint." He also relit the horse to make it match the background, using mattes and 3D lights inside Smoke. In the first, early morning scene, omp- son relit the barn to make it look like morning, and to sell that further, added little digital insects flying around the hors- es. Ryan, meanwhile, painted the outside of the barn. Director: Peter Arnell Agency: The Arnell Group Production company: The Arnell Group CG company: Digital Domain, DreamWorks Animation In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, TV viewers were tantalized with more than the competition on the field: the chance to see a SoBe commercial in 3D, as well as a trailer from DreamWorks Animation for Monsters vs. Aliens. Pepsi- Co's SoBe joined its CG lizards with the stars from Dream- Works Animation's upcoming theatrical release and NFL players Matt Light (New England Patriots), Justin Tuck (New York Giants) and Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens). What brings them together is a highly unlikely event: They're all participat- ing in a ballet performance of "Swan Lake." Directed by Peter Arnell, the spot opens on sheet music, where the "Swan" in "Swan Lake" is crossed out and replaced with "Lizard." As the curtain opens, we see the NFL players in white uniforms, cleats, and tutus attempting their best to plie and jete across the stage. When Ray Lewis steps out for a bottle of SoBe Lifewater, the stumbling dancers send the bottle hurtling through the air. The characters from Monsters vs. Aliens and the SoBe Lizards invade the stage, and the ballet quickly turns into a wild dance party. In charge on the CG side was Digital Domain visual effects supervisor Jay Barton, who also led the studio's team on last year's SoBe Super Bowl spot starring super-model Naomi Campbell. Due to the limited amount of time with the NFL players, the filming occurred in two days: one with the hero characters and a second day for the secondary dancers and stunt doubles. Production company 3ality handled the 3D shoot, using Sony HD cameras on a stereoscopic rig. "In a regular 2D spot, you've got one camera to shoot two different people on greenscreen," says Barton. "You can do a lot of fudging to get them to work together in a scene. It be- comes quite a different matter to do that in stereo 3D. You not only have to make them work in the correct size and screen position, but now, also, in correct depth. We talked about where the characters all belong in that 3D space. Everyone was savvy enough that we had the language to know where The live-action spot "Circus" required quite a bit of digital work, and not all of it involved making the horses do super feats. In the scene above, the inside of the circus tent was shot live (left); compositors later added the clown and performers to the plate. n n n n Broadcast•Stereo

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