commercial – Page 10

June 27, 2019June 19, 2020

Nintendo: “World of Wonder”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: 2D Lead / Senior Nuke Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Motion Theory
CLIENT: Nintendo
AGENCY: Leo Burnett – Chicago
DIRECTOR: Bryan Godwin

Nintendo’s “World of Wonder” campaign promoted three game titles for its DS handheld platform. The concept focused on a group of Nintendo DS-playing kids, who through their gameplay, are transported to an imaginary world where their gaming materializes into reality.

As a boy plays “Mario Kart,” he’s in the middle of a racetrack with Mario in the lead. And as a girl plays “Nintendogs,” puppies interact with all the kids in the dog park. It’s a playful spot meant to be somewhat campy and corny, as well as highly stylized.

I worked on a number of shots for the “Mario Kart “and “Nintendogs” sequences. All the kids and puppies were shot on large greenscreen stages. All the characters and environments were matchmoved and created in CG, with some additional tracking tweaks and 2D effects added in comp.

June 27, 2019June 19, 2020

HP Hands: “Fergie the Digital Dutchess”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Nuke Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Motion Theory
CLIENT: Hewlett-Packard
AGENCY: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
DIRECTOR: Mathew Cullen

As the latest in a series of HP commercials based around the clever use of hands, this Fergie spot signified a return to a visual concept that Motion Theory first pioneered for the technology company.

Except this time, the visual parameters could be expanded beyond what had been achieved before – namely, with previous hands spots featuring Mark Burnett (reality-TV based pioneer), Mark Cuban (billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner), and Pharrell Williams (musician/producer).

With Fergie as featured talent, the Black Eyed Peas vocalist brought a whole rhythmic aspect to the spot, opening the door for a more elaborate visual punctuation and sophistication.

My role as Flame Artist was tackling the beauty work on Fergie’s hands and arms, and occasionally her chin. As Nuke artist, I handled the greenscreen extraction and preliminary comp work on the spot’s first half, all the way until Fergie joins the dancers.

An amazing team of After Effects artists handled the expanding laptop and water sequences., which I also aided in compositing.

June 27, 2019June 19, 2020

Tic Tac: “T-Form” | “Visualizer”

Tic Tac: “T-Form”

Tic Tac: “Visualizer”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Nuke Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Motion Theory
CLIENT: Tic Tac
AGENCY: Merkley+Partners
DIRECTOR: Mark Kudsi

These two all CG spots were designed to accomplish two goals: introduce Chill, Tic Tac’s latest breath mints, and show off the redesign of their recognizably branded rectangular plastic box.

Accomplishing the latter was fairly straightforward. A box is a box. The former was a bit trickier, since the visual representation of taste is all about metaphor and interpretation.

As a solution, director Mark Kudsi treated his box of Tic Tacs as building blocks to assemble and form iconic shapes: a flock of birds, a budding sunflower, an oscillating soundwave, etc.

Through some tricky particle animation, and some fluid visual choreography, the spots came together, capturing the soothing sensations that only Tic Tac Chill could provide.

June 27, 2019June 19, 2020

Honda: “All in One Place”

COMMERCIAL
ROLE: 2D Lead / Senior Nuke Compositor / Flame Artist
VENDOR: Motion Theory
CLIENT: Honda
AGENCY: Rubin Postaer and Associates
DIRECTOR: Jesus de Francisco & Mathew Cullen

Honda Accord “All in One Place” was the first project I did for Motion Theory. I began as a Nuke compositor, but due to under-staffing, became the 2D lead, ultimately having to comp 90% of the spot myself.

The commercial itself is visually striking, creatively metaphoric, and highly stylized. In one continuous take, an Accord splits in half, lengthwise, revealing an entire factory of employees busily working “under the hood.” There’s a crash test room, a wind tunnel, and a symphony for the engine, to name a few of the compartments.

All the workers, as well as a full orchestra, were shot on greenscreen and composited into a motion control plate of a practical interior model that was built to scale. Additional CG elements, such as the flowering MPG hedge, holograms, race track, and crash test slingshot, were added to bolster the activity. Exterior environments were tracked and assembled in Flame.