Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/360038
www.postmagazine.com 22 POST AUGUST 2014 Directed by Dan Shapiro and Alex Topaller, Loves Me Not features the Island Def Jam Music Group artist performing solo on a small platform in a ballroom, as strings of pure-white light bulbs ascend and descend from the ceiling. It also features twin super models, who appear separately and together. In some scenes there are as many as four girls, so the viewer never knows if they are real twins or digital doubles. The Loves Me Not video was shot en- tirely against a greenscreen using a Red Epic camera. All of the sets, as well as the automated kinetic light-bulb sculp- tures, were created entirely in CG. A controllable light-bulb array was hung over the set to create accurate light- ing that would enhance the CG eff ects. The studio was able to raise and lower the rig relative to the talent and fi re the bulbs off in patterns, dimming and brightening the lights as needed. To create the "twins," Aggressive shot the featured talent twice for each scene. The camera remained locked for those shots, but the Epic's high resolution cap- ture allowed for panning later in post. The video was edited in an Avid NLE, fi rst by assembling one master green-footage sequence, as well as multiple additional footage streams that corresponded with the twin girl layers. These were then exported as fl at Red log ProRes4444 clips and were color graded in Da Vinci Resolve. While the fi nal de- livery resolution was 1080p, the studio opted to export the graded footage at 3K for VFX, leaving room for virtual camera moves. Master sequences were brought into After Eff ects (coupled with Sapphire and Trapcode plug-ins) for keying and compositing. The CG light sculpture and environments were created in Autodesk 3DS Max and were rendered in V-Ray. In total, the video has over 150 VFX shots. HICCUP GETS DIVERSIFIED New York's Hiccup Media handles many aspects of the content creation process within the music industry, including development, production, editorial, ani- mation, color grading and VFX. The studio's music video projects have ranged from Michael Jackson to Daughtry, and they recently completed a video for hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky, providing post, animation, color, and VFX for the Goldie track. Michael Cruz, creative director, says, "We feel the key to our success is being able to blend some original looks with motion graphics and live action, as well as give each piece a distinctive tone that's in line with the artist's music and style." The latest project was a "game-changing release for the artist," he notes, "so there was a lot of pressure for the video to be amazing." Much of the look was created in post, with scenes and backgrounds built entirely through compositing. The golden tones on each object were all achieved through tedious masking, tracking and rotoscoping. The Hiccup team relies on Avid for editing and Maya, Cinema 4D and After Eff ects/Illustrator/Photo- shop for design/animation. SHIFT HAPPENS. Make a change for the better. Move your edit into the cloud for more dynamic workfl ows and creative stories. Forscene is the world's most advanced cloud-based post production platform. Shift your thinking at forscene.com MUSIC VIDEOS www.postmagazine.com FOR MORE MUSIC VIDEOS, VISIT US ONLINE AT: Hiccup Media provided post, animation, color and VFX for A$AP Rocky's Goldie video.