Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/3788
www.postmagazine.com October 2009 • Post 23 Lowe Roche sent Mottershead a napkin with the line drawing of a circle with cars inside it. "They even- tually sent the script, but it was up to me to figure out how to get a fleet of Audi's to poetically maneuver through this endless tunnel," explains Mottershead. "They wanted to show off the car's agility, but oddly enough we didn't really drive the cars," he says. "They were stationary cars in studio except for a few shots shot on a track cut in to help sell the fake shots." Artjail couldn't shoot the real cars driving in a tun- nel since an ideal location didn't exist and they didn't have enough time for CG. So they had to figure out how to get the real cars to do an arc in a CG tunnel. Mottershead realized that if they spun the camera in- stead of the car, they would achieve same result of the cars arcing through the frame. "We build this custom, windmill-like 35mm camera rig — a 50-foot span — that could spin a full 360 degrees within the 65-foot tall studio and record the cars. The only thing we had to do with the cars was the steering; that was the only perspective change we had to create in-camera." The autos were shot on black to capture the reflections, which were later enhanced in Flame. "The cars are pretty forgiving in terms of roto-ing and we were making white cars on black," he explains. "So there was a combi- nation of luma keying and roto- ing to take cars out of studio and composite them into a 3D tunnel." The cars were mounted on plat- forms, so rims had to spin in post — they were cut out and tracked into the shots manually, so the angles worked with the scene. To make things go smoothly once it got to produc- tion, Mottershead brought in NewTek LightWave ar tist Christian Moreton to do previs — he also cre- ated the oversized 3D tunnel for the spot. "Christian basically rendered out all these angles with sound ef- fects and music and gave it to the editor [Mark Mor- ton of School Editing in Toronto]. We have star ted working this way, showing the agency the spot in pre- vis before we start working on it. In the prepro meet- ing, if I'm directing the piece, I can show them the spot basically done and they can make comments." There were five different cars featured in the spot, but they all looked similar. "We had to shoot multiple plates for each car in their varying distances from the camera and we had a remote control head, so we had an a-b-c-d-e camera cut," he explains. "We had the first car and then added the second car at the dis- tance it should be away from the first car in the tun- nel, and then we put things where they should be. It went like clockwork after the previs was done." Mottershead says because they had a perfectly cir- cular CG tunnel, which was based on reference im- ages of real tunnels, it offered him a large degree of control. "With the previs in hand we were able to test and realize that if we put the camera in the ultimate center point of the rig, keeping it locked 25 feet off the ground, and shot the car doing its steering ele- ment only, I was able to fully control the rotation of the cars in post, since there was no perspective change from the bottom, top, or side of the tunnel. After I cut the cars out of the studio shots and put them in an oversized CG tunnel render, I could work in 2D in Flame. By moving each layer's pivot point to the vanishing point of the shot, I could then rotate the cars in 2D but make them go up and down the walls of the tunnel. I could control their position and timing, I could also pan and tilt on that composite or add a hand-held effect to basically give me an abundance of new possible framing oppor tunities accomplished completely in post.This little discovery saved the pro- ject and brought it to a different level." G R A B B I N G A V I S C E R A L R E S P O N S E Tom Koh is an ar tist. He went to ar t school and has a background in print and graphic design; he brings those experiences with him each day while working as a compositor and creative director at Blind (www.blind.com) in Santa Monica. "Great compositing closes that gap between what is happening in the live-action plate and what you cre- ated in post. A palate of graphics, visual effects or ani- mation is what we use to creatively problem solve, to create the message or the content, whether it be a commercial spot, a show open or a main title. Com- positing artistically merges those elements together in a way where one brings life to the other." Koh has always had an interest in photography, and once he star ted working in CG and composit- ing, he began to look at photography in a different way. "So much great photography is the ar t of light- ing an object or a subject really well. My goal is bring back some of the details I appreciate in photography, such really good lighting, to my work as a composi- tor. When working on the composite, I am keeping in mind the good aspects of photography. I am trying to match up how the lighting works within all my el- ements in the scene — I am tr ying to add atmos- pherics, depth of field, capturing the analog quality I would see in a photograph.Though I may have many different inspirations, photography is the most rele- vant to the composite." So while photography might be Koh's biggest influ- ence, other things do inspire him, such as visiting muse- ums and viewing online content such as art blogs and art and design Websites."As a director, not only do you have to problem solve, you want to captivate the viewer, and illustrations and paintings inspire me in terms of grabbing the visceral response from the viewer." And most recently, Koh has found himself being inspired by product and package design. "My inspira- tions change a lot, and lately I've been inspired by the problem-solving nature of form and function, and you find that perfect balance in product and package design." Koh put all of his influences to work on a recent DirecTV project called Mix Channel; he served as di- rector, designer and compositor. "DirecTV came to us with a general objective of this new initiative they were promoting: a product which allows you to watch multiple games at one time," he explains."Their objec- tive was how do we communicate the purpose and use of the product in a visually engaging way. We imagined a television that the viewer has full control over — if you sor t of peeled away the surface you can see a whole lot more outside of the frame." The spot star ts off with a typical flat screen on a white wall playing a baseball game, then a pair of hands appear and pulls the screen, changing its dimen- sions and fitting in eight different games. After they figured out the creative, the Blind team came up with a methodology for production so when it was time for post, all the worry would be removed. "We did extensive development, trying to figure out an actual physical rig that the hands would interact with, so when we got to post we would have the rig to guide us with the animation and the composite." Jumping back to the production, Koh called on his photography influences. "Lighting was a key aspect to how we could have a seamless composite, so when we see the end result it's believable." The actors were composited into a completely vir tual room — CG from head to toe. Blind shot them on greenscreen (using a Red camera), and be- cause they created the CG scenes before hand, they had predetermined lights referenced in previs for the DP, so he knew exactly how to set up the stage and the keylights. A previs of the camera lensing and movement were also done before the shoot using Autodesk 3DS Max. In order to keep things moving, the studio had two artists working a scene each, one using Autodesk 3DS Max and another employing Autodesk Maya. Koh himself calls on After Effects and Maxon Cinema 4D. "Those tools are not only really user friendly in terms of a having a complete pipeline in one machine, I can get a lot done within a short amount of time." For this DirecTV spot, Blind created a CG living room along with a TV displaying eight different channels at one time.