Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/246736
V F X A FEW OTHER THINGS There's a new Camera Crane option in the Camera menu that places an entire camera crane rig into your scene. You can control the angle and length of the base, arm, head and camera. The crane is positioned on a tripod that you can animate or position. You can also animate the base along a spline to act as a dolly. Being able to have a custom crane with a smooth "track" for a dolly system kind of blew my mind. Some might ask, "Why would I need a crane when I can do the same animations with a regular camera?" My answer: Time. You can quickly draw a Bezier Spline, link the base of the crane to it and set the target of your camera to whatever you want it to focus on. Then you just animate the position and adjust accordingly. It's super fast and matches the motion of an actual crane and dolly. Another new feature that might just be a little unsung hero is the Texture Manager. You can view a full list of all of your textures with the ability to sort and filter. The best part about this new feature is the ability to relink missing textures quickly. You can just highlight the missing textures, select "relink" from the menu and navigate to where the textures are stored. Done. It's that easy and super fast. And last but certainly not least is the new Grass Grower. You can put grass on anything and fully customize it to your liking. From color to length to density, it's incredibly easy and fast to add and make changes. You simply click "Grow Grass" and boom… instant grassification. Maxon's Cineversity Website even has an "Instant Grassification" tutorial. I've spent countless days using the CC Hair plug-in in After Effects to create grass for my visual effects, but no more. With Cineware and Grow Grass, I can now quickly make believable grass in a matter of seconds and bring it into my After Effects project. It's odd how many times I've actually had to make grass. Really. IN THE END I'm definitely adding this stellar software to my toolbox. It has the refinement I've needed in my 3D animations and all of these new features make it even easier and more efficient to work with. If you've never touched a 3D program, I'd highly suggest downloading the demo version of Cinema 4D and seeing what it's all about. You won't be able to keep the money in your wallet. F O R C O M M E R C I A L S [ Cont.from 25 ] light system at MPC LA, was especially critical for sequences shot in the "hard light" of Bulgaria, notes O'Shea. In the woods "each pass of armor got a separate grade making it more heroic and bluer while keeping the reds of Marius's helmet plume and blanket through to the arena sequence where we pushed the grade a lot further. Some shots genuinely look like classical paintings." The four-month shoot and post effort required MPC LA to coordinate its studios worldwide. MPC Bangalore handled plate preparation and tracking; MPC NY assembled a team for one of the short films; and MPC London contributed resources for matte painting. "We spread the load across the different time zones to achieve a lot in a short space of time," says O'Shea. "Our infrastructure is mirrored in each office — a legacy from our features department — which makes communication a lot easier." The finished Xbox spot stands out for "its scope and the amount of detail we put into Marius's world," he reports. "We had top talent working on it — Brian (Beletic) has exceptionally-high standards, and if you can make him happy you're definitely on the right track." RAM Ram is known for its attention-getting spots peppered with VFX but Details, tailored to the south Texas region, takes a design-oriented approach for the brand's Laramie Longhorn Truck. At Dallas-based Lucky Post (www.luckypost.com), editor/designer Sai Selvarajan and motion graphics artist and designer Seth Olson partnered to create a vintage animated map that highlights the provenance of the vehicle's high-end features, from "leather A U D I O sewn with the soul of the West" to "wood that's felt the bite of barbed wire." The spot, from The Richards Group/Dallas, is graphically elegant to match the truck's luxury theme. The agency brought the duo visual elements used in previous print campaigns and delivered a script that gave them the flexibility to pull an array of elements together to take the truck on an animated journey across Texas. "It's a very unique truck commercial," says Selvarajan. "The map is a cool way to show how high-end the Laramie is by emphasizing its luxury features. It looks very different from a spot that just shows off the sheet metal." Selvarajan and Olson combined the burnished, parchment-style map of Texas with animated lines, which actually represent old cattle driving trails. They integrated illustrations, icons and stills using an ink-wash technique that directs the flow of the message across the map. To create the ink washes, Olson dropped ink into water and captured, often in slow-motion, how it flowed through the water. "Then I brought that footage into After Effects where I could rotate the direction and retime the speed of the ink washes and use them to reveal each individual layer" of the map, he explains. Olson also developed a cross-hatching technique using procedural layering to give line shading and contour to the elements and unifying the disparate pieces. He used Illustrator to create Old West icons — a gun, fence post, and barbed wire — to enhance the Texas motif. Undulating lines in the Gulf simulate waves. Vintage–style typography was crafted in Photoshop. Selvarajan cut the spot in Final Cut Pro; he performed color grading and did sound design in FCP too. Scottie Richardson used Pro Tools to enhance the sound design and perform the final mix. F O R [ Cont.from 31 ] farm out some of the work, they oversaw the entire audio post process, from edit to mix. Much of the sound design was already well established by picture editor Saia and director Preiss. "Those guys had the film in a really great place sonically and wanted to explore audio post options on how to make it more cinematic, more lush, more full, and more detailed," Reynaud recalls. Joe Albany's music is a huge part of the story, and the soundtrack is filled with source music and source material from the mid-70s, the time period in which the film takes place. For Reynaud, that's the real highlight of the film. He notes that there is a radio or a TV on in most of the scenes. According to Reynaud, all of that source material was edited and captured by Saia and Preiss. "A lot of the material they got the rights to, and that was the majority of the music in this film. Music runs throughout the entire film; it's playing in people's apartments, playing on little radios, and playing on record players." For any of the source material that they couldn't get the rights to, the sound was re-created by loop groups. Reynaud liked the challenge of working with director Preiss, who is very particular and specific on how he hears things. For example, even if a record company gave Preiss the highest-quality remaster of a track used in the film, Preiss would often opt to use the original vinyl recording because that actual record is playing in the scene. "There are several instances of that," Reynaud says, I N D I E S "where we went back to the actual vinyl and captured, digitized, and used that in the film rather than the most recent mastering." Reynaud used filtering and panning to put the music into the scene. "Every little second of that film's music, and music placement in the room, and in the environment in the scene, was well thought out and well executed." The film was mixed in 5.1 using Pro Tools 10. Heard City had six weeks to complete the audio post. Reynaud notes that this project was so large they had to buy additional hardware just to play back all 390 tracks. "It's a monster of a project and it's not a blockbuster film," he notes. "It's not a shoot 'em up film. There are no explosions in the film, I will say that much. But, it's very lush and full of subtle sound." Reynaud often used Audio Ease's Speakerphone plugin on this film. It's a wonderful plug-in, says Reynaud, "but it will definitely crash your machine. It's a love-hate relationship with that plug-in." Improvements in audio post technology don't necessarily improve the quality of independent films, believes Reynaud, though the accessibility of the technology may facilitate better audio post processes in the hands of the right talent. "At the end of the day, you're still trying to find that talent to operate the machine, whether it be post audio, or colorist, or an editor. I think the equipment helps but it really comes down to experience and talent. The gear in the right hands can be an advantage." www.postmagazine.com Post • January 2014 47