Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/69535
Broadcast Design Gallery Breaking In What On Earth? BETHESDA, MD — Three of Change (www. threeofchange.com) partnered with Discov- ery Science to design and package their "What on Earth?" block of programming. The series explores a wide variety of animals, sci- ence and phenomenon, and airs as a block of three one-hour episodes. "We really tried to produce a series open that reflected the true nature of each phe- nomenon," notes owner/creative director, Jesse Gordon. "The common thread for the show is that everything is mysterious, natural, and exists on Earth. The original concepts for the show focused on portraying the four corners of the Earth as the four natural 'elements' of early scientific investigation: earth, air, fire and water." The series features episodes that look at army ants, electric eels, monster waves, violent hornets, piranhas and the abyss. The "What On Earth?" titles where put together using a MacBook Pro running After Effects and Trapcode's Particular plug-in. The environments were a combination of all the underwater elements, cre- ated in Adobe Illustrator and textured in Photoshop. The dry land imagery was taken from studio artists' personal landscape photography and composited together to create unique locations. In addition to Gordon, artist Bill Rude also contributed. Dog Whisperer BETHESDA, MD — Pixeldust Studios (www.pixel- dust.tv) created the main titles for Dog Whisperer, a series that airs on the National Geographic Wild TV channel. In order to create the effect of thousands of dogs on a hillside, Pixeldust filmed a handful of dogs in sections using a high-speed Phantom camera. Those dogs were used for the extreme foreground, explains Pixeldust executive producer Dianna Costello, while the dogs in the background were a combination of additional photography, taken on the set, and stock photos. To create the bolt of lightning that comes out of host Cesar Millan's finger, optical lens effects were added to the high-speed footage, with extreme scaling of the shot plate so that it looked like a volume of energy moving through the air. Moving through various wings of Contra headquar- ters in frozen moments, the firm's oddball geniuses are introduced. The second season focuses more on the workplace dynamics rather than the crew's fieldwork, as in Season 1, and the show's creators wanted to bet- ter reflect the new direction with a new main title sequence. While the open retained the typeface used for Season 1, the overhaul included the introduction of several new cast members. Live-action was shot using the same Arri Alexas used in the show's production. For the pivotal frozen moment effect, Big Machine tapped its "Glidetime" technique. Creative directors Ken Carlson and Steve Petersen transcoded the shots and then created all of the 3D effects in Maxon's Cinema 4D. Compositing was then completed in Adobe After Effects. Sunday Night Football LOS ANGELES — VFX studio Iron Claw (www.ironclaw.la) recently won an Emmy Award for its work on NBC Sports' Sunday Night Football show open, featuring country star Faith Hill. The open was recognized in the "Outstanding Production Design/Art Direction" category. The project marks the second year that Iron Claw has worked with the Hill on the show open, which continues the Americana concept and features NFL players hailing from their team home- towns. Hill blasts through a moody metropolis in a leather outfit while riding a motorcycle. She sings on a street corner as fans flock to the lit-up stadium in the background. The studio had to differentiate Hill's look and surroundings from the previous season, which centered around a countryside environment. The project took six weeks to complete, with Iron Claw presenting still frames for look and feel, and then following with gray-scale 3D previsualization movies. The previs was used as a basis for CG artists to begin modeling and constructing the virtual city. Sal Rangel, Kevin Lim, Luis Vega, David Hwang, Tim Ryan, Ryan Kirkwood, Richie Sandow and Robin Roepstroff all worked as 3D animators. Renee Tymn and Matt Spencer handled Flame work. 30 Post • June 2012 www.postmagazine.com LOS ANGELES — Big Machine (www.bigmachine.net) was called on by Adam F. Goldberg Productions, Happy Madison Productions and Sony Pictures Televi- sion to create the main titles for the Fox comedy series Breaking In, starring Christian Slater. The cinemat- ic, VFX-driven open for Season 2 presents the show's principal characters and their antics at the fictional Contra Security Firm.