Flame Artist: VFX Compositing | Finishing
SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Lead Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mill
AGENCY: 72andSunny
PRODUCTION CO: Film 47
DIRECTOR: Peter Berg
How many NFL stars can fit into one two minute commercial? Apparently, all of them. At least, it seemed that way at the time. Short turnaround spot with lots of random nit picky clean up notes. A few hair and head transplants to mask the stunt doubles. And lots of carpet grooming. What else would you expect from a Super Bowl spot?
Full Credits
COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: The Mission
AGENCY: McGarry Bowen
DIRECTOR: Samuel Bayer
One of the earlier stadium/crowd replacement projects I worked on, all done in Flame with 2D elements, crowd plates, and general all-around creative thinking. These days, this type of project is a fairly standard CG task, with Massive or Golaem doing the heavy lifting. Being in smaller shop, with a handful of experienced Flame artists, the spot was regulated as a 2D comp challenge.
I worked on a couple of wide running shots, as well as those approaching camera. Since the conceit was a dream sequence, the stadium reality was slightly heightened, with atmosphere and stylized lighting. A lot of hand tracking and multiplane layers, with matte painted bleachers and scoreboards, and clever glows and lighting effects to illuminate the field.
PROMO
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Logan
CLIENT: Nike, NFL
These all-CG Nike NFL promo spots signal the introduction of Nike-sponsored new uniforms for the given teams. Above is the Vikings spot. But I also worked on spots for the Dolphins and Jaguars.
These promos were tricky due to the compressed schedule (a perpetually common trend), and a need to split work between Flame and Nuke. This meant all the base comps were done in Nuke, with Flame being used to soften the CG curse that comes with short schedules and little time for revision.
All of my work was done on top of the base Nuke comps, which typically got things within 85-90% of the way there. Flame was used for enhancing CG integration through a variety of techniques, from introducing lens distortion and stylized DOF to re-lighting and re-grading elements to shape the focus and depth of given shots.
In addition, flares, glows, and vignettes were judiciously added to increase the impact of each spot.
SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL
ROLE: Senior Flame Artist / VFX Compositor
VENDOR: Motion Theory
CLIENT: NFL Networks
DIRECTOR: Mathew Cullen
NFL’s superbowl spot was designed to promote broadcast, online, and mobile coverage of the game. The commercial featured Oakland running back Darren McFadden in a continuous jog through the seasons to demonstrate that football season never ends. Add the debut of U2’s “Run” into the mix, and you’re ready for Game Day.
As one of four flame artists, my role was to clean-up, assemble, and comp elements for the training camp portion of the spot. This included tracking matte paintings, extending the football field, adding shadows, grading skies, repo-ing cheerleaders, and comping CG elements.
Considering a shorter than typical schedule, under a week, there was quite a bit of give and take to make this one work.