2018

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Anki Vector: “The Good Robot: The Decision”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Wieden + Kennedy
PRODUCTION CO: Somesuch
DIRECTOR: Nick Gordon

This company went out of business earlier this year. Not sure what that says about the marketing behind this unusual product. But the spot I worked on delivered the VFX goods, nonetheless.

Think of Siri as a mini-tractor-like robot that mostly makes a lot of R2-D2 noises and moves around. Hmmm … now, that I think about it, maybe its failure was written from the start.

Anyway, I enjoyed contributing to this one, mainly due to the “Get Out” vibe, as well as the Skynet references, and all manner of technophobia. Lots of clean up, product beauty, and CG robot dogs and drones.

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IBM: “Smart Drive”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Lead Flame Artist / VFX Compositor & Finisher
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide – NY

Fairly straightforward racing spot that somehow acts as metaphor for IBM’s latest tech. Real cars and CG crowds. Lots of retimes, with accompanying time warp cleanup. And a few logo removals here and there – mainly cars and helmets.

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Comcast Xfinity: “Summer Project” | “Long Distance Relationship” | “When 2 Becomes 5”

Comcast Xfinity: “Summer Project”

Comcast Xfinity: “Long Distance Relationship”

Comcast Xfinity: “When 2 Becomes 5”

COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGN
ROLE: Lead Flame Artist / VFX Compositor & Finisher
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

The gag for these Xfinity spots is the continuous and seamless “one-take” shot. Of course, each is comprised of many shots, not all continuous, nor seamless, with all types of nudging and fudging to get the transitional moments to align. Consequently, some spots flow more smoothly than others, each relying on their own visual techniques to tell the story – time-lapse, wipes, screens, morphs, etc.

The conforms were a bit tricky, getting all these elements to sync correctly, requiring a lot of counter-animation, repo’s and timewarp/speedramps, with the accompanying cleanup. Plus, an assortment of screen comps, and in some instances, rebuilding of background plates to align foreground elements.

These three spots come from a larger campaign, amounting to six in total. I chose these three, because I was the 2D lead for each. I contributed to the others, but only in a support capacity.

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KFC: “Bossa Crispy” | “All In”

KFC” “Bossa Crispy”

KFC: “All In”

COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGN
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Wieden+Kennedy
PRODUCTION CO: Reset
DIRECTOR: Gary Freedman

I think I’ve seen this boat cruising in and out of Marina del Rey from time to time.

That said, these two KFC spots were shot in Long Beach. The boat was docked for some insurance/regulatory reason I’m unsure about, since I don’t actually own or operate a boat. This little snafu meant replacing all the backgrounds for the deck/interior shots. I added open water and the Caribbean island for most of the wide shots in both spots.

Also, the boat’s exterior didn’t have all the KFC branding, so I added some red decals to a couple of shots. Additionally, there was some clean-up of a ceiling rig, food beauty and steaming, and further populating of the decks with more people.

Surprisingly, no beauty work was needed for the Colonel, a.k.a. George Hamilton. His extra crispy look was good as is.

Full Credits

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Taco Bell: “The Librarian”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Draftfcb

I was going through a bit of a food phase with the projects I was asked to work on. This Taco Bell spot was the second food brand in a trio, the others being KFC and Chobani. All different agencies. All unrelated and purely coincidental. And for the most part, equally fun in their own way.

I assembled the whole first half of the spot, including the chair pullback into the shelf sanctuary. There was a handful of cleanup, mainly greeking of all the book titles, with the exception of the hero book, and the addition of paper airplanes and other tossed objects.

The chair pullback was challenging, despite being mostly shot in camera. The rig removal was substantial. But a requested retiming of elements triggered a complete rebuild of the library environment. Lots of roto and creation of clean plates that weren’t shot to accommodate fix-it-in-post notes.

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Chobani Flip: “A Little Door” | “He Can Fly” | “Food Fight”

Chobani Flip: “A Little Door”

Chobani Flip: “He Can Fly”

Chobani Flip: “Food Fight”

COMMERCIAL CAMPAIGN
ROLE: Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Chobani
PRODUCTION CO: MJZ
DIRECTOR: Dante Ariola

These magical Chobani spots marked the beginning of a trio of unrelated food products I worked on, the former two being Taco Bell and KFC.

I truly enjoyed contributing to these visuals, each a stylized children’s fairy tale-ish fantasy, all centered around the concept of Flipland, an imaginary world inspired by Chobani’s gimmicky flip container for its yogurt. Minor amounts of CG augmented a mostly in-camera and 2D enhanced workload of visual effects.

Shot indoors, each required environment extensions, ranging from tricky forests that intersected warehouse rafters to wheat fields that needed to grow for miles to flowered landscapes with painterly mountains. I contributed to a handful of each, relying mostly on replicating plate photography with Flame camera tracks.

I also worked on fairy dust, magical door light, and blooming flowers for “A Little Door.” And I handled rig removal and the addition of more flying food for “Food Fight.”

Full Credits

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Super Bowl 2018 | Doritos: “Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice”

SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
PRODUCTION CO: Reset
DIRECTOR: Nabil

This was a great way to start out 2018, super-bowling with Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman. CG ice and matte painted rooms, creatively art directed for maximum sizzle and cool. I handled most of the ice’d wide shots of Morgan, as well as his icy breath. Too bad “Game of Thrones” went off the rails in its final season, and Morgan had to end up on the wrong side of “Me Too.” With the passage of time, it puts a whole different spin on this spot. Music by Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliot.

Full Credits

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