Replay Studios recently provided on-site studio support for Spinifex Interactive, producing content for a fast-paced cinematic, used at the Nissan GTR Launch in New York.
Working with the Maya / Mental Ray render pipeline, tasks included Maya scene setup, batch rendering and renderfarm management.
After Effects was then used to quickly composite the various render passes and produce a visual reference for Emerald City.
View Quicktime [File size: 35.4 MB]
MAYA / MENTAL RAY
The first stage of work involved setting up the various Maya scenes with multiple render layers and Mental Ray shaders, ready to output multiple render passes to the renderfarm. Extra passes included: Ambient Occlusion, Motion Vectors, Depth Matte, Volume Lights and Geometry Masks.
After Effects
These render passes were then composited in After Effects adding various effects like depth of field, motion blur and volume lights. These shots were then rendered out as Quicktimes and sent to Emerald City as reference.
MULTIPLE STUDIOS
The final project was then created by the talented artists at Emerald City using a combination Shake and Flame, integrating the live action footage as well as the CG elements to produce a rich cinematic feel.
On-site meetings at Emerald City helped troubleshoot specific shots and identify the key tasks and render passes required for Emerald City. Note: The final Quicktime is by Emerald City.
Replay Studios recently provided visual effects services to Studio: Spinifex for the Nissan Infinity Launch in New York.
HD footage was captured on location in LA with the cars mounted on black turntables with the wheels elevated slightly. This allowed for multiple camera angles and maintained the appearance of the car moving. The studio was all black with various tracking markers placed around the car and on the walls to allow for match-moving.
All shots were then 2D camera tracked and rotoscoped to allow for integration with CG environments and effects.
CG environemts and effects were created by the talented artists at Spinifex and final compositing was performed in After Effects and Combustion.
Nissan Infinity brand luxury vehicles.
2d Camera tracking
2D camera tracking was used to plot the overall movement of the cars with regard to position and rotation values.
This proved very handy when trying to maintain an accurate mask, particularly when the footage was jerky at times.
Rotoscoping
The bulk of the work performed on this job was the fine art of rotoscoping. Careful attention to car profiles was needed, particularly for long or slow-moving sequences.
In late 2007, Replay Studios provided key visual effects services to studio: Spinifex for the Nissan Murano launch in Los Angeles.
The visual theme was that of architectural and design elements progressing from concept sketch to rendered artwork and finally to real-life footage of the car driving with key features highlighted.
Sketchy style
The look and feel for the project was that of real-world art and design tools:
Pencil, markers, ink and grid-paper.
Photoshop Illustrations
Each scene was illustrated in Photoshop by a talented freelance Illustrator and set up as a separate Photoshop layers.
These files were then optimized by converting to greyscale, dropping the resolution and merging, separating and grouping the various layers, with logical layer naming convensions.
After Effects Animation
Once the Photoshop files were prepared, the process of animation was fairly straight forward and methodical.
The animation was acheived with a combination of layer masks and Trapcode: 3D-Stroke.
CG environment creation, texture and matt painting and a truckload of effects and compositing followed the huge chunk of animation perfomed by several animators and 3D VFX artists.
Character Rigging + Animation
This job was for character rigging and animation on The
Fairies, a popular TV show for children.
Working with a small team of highly creative artists, the work was quite varied including CG stunt-doubles as well as the more cartoony style of characters like Clickety Clock and Fairy Mail.
Provided technical assistance to the animation department at Animal Logic during production on the film Happy Feet. With breathtaking environments, a host of lovable characters and a supurb team of world class artists... its no wonder that Happy Feet cleaned up at the Oscars.
Given the nature and scope of the film, the pipeline was a critical element to production and as such, demanded acute attention to detail, observing strict asset dependancies and file naming protocols.
Assisting the Animators
Support was given between the animation, character and tools departments, clarifying specific animation-centric issues and helping roll-out new tools and updates to the animators.
Problem Solving / Trouble-shooting
General problem solving and trouble-shooting was a mainstay of this position and involved countless meetings with different artists and members of staff. Communication was a vital part of this job.
Syflex / Cloth Simulation
Syflex cloth simulations were run for shots involving Lovelace's Talisman: a 6-ring pack holder, obtained during his epic journey of enlightenment.
KING Abdullah university grand opening
The King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia had an official opening in 2007 with a massive entourage of world class special event planning, literally fit for a King.
The King himself opened the University with an official ceremony. Huge video walls and projections were used throughout the event, celebrating the progress of man, science and technology.
CHROMA KEY REMOVAL
KeyLight plugin in After Effects was used along with bezier masks to rotoscope the actors out from the greenscreen background.
Video Loop Points
Video loop points were created using a combination of standard loop, ping-pong and cross-fading of the footage, post-chroma key removal. This allowed deployment of the various actors across any scene necessary, regardless of length.
2D VFX Compositing
Once the loops were prepared, actors were placed on various different University campus backgrounds. Actors were graded to match the lighting of each scenario and were scaled accordingly, based on distance.
Replay Studios recently provided visual effects services to Studio: Spinifex for the St. George Bank: ICON Campaign.
This corporate training / motivational video used Australian Icons to promote company values. The video tracks an employee through the office while cutting in and out of various news segments.
3D MATCH-MOVING
3D Match-Moving was used thoughout the job to effectively create the illusion of footage items integrating with the office environment.
MOTION GRAPHICS
In addition to the VFX and compositing tasks was a small amount of motion graphics. The final screen of the video resolves to the St. George ICON logo with the slogan fading in one letter at a time.
Care was taken to adhere to strict corporate style guidelines.
2D VFX COMPOSITING
The bulk of work done on this job involved the integration of video footage with the office environment.
A heavy use of layers, masks and effects were used to create the final shots in After Effects.
Replay Studios recently helped create some visuals for the FIFA world congress 2008, held at the Sydney Opera House.
Used with existing slideshows and backing music, this was to visualise the concept for client approval.
Main stage hologram
Soccerball Graphic EQ
2D VFX Compositing
The first of the 2 shots was of the main stage of the event, where a giant soccerball creates holographic projections of the various federation logos araound the stage.
This then leads into a rythmic performance from dance company "Stomp".
The second shot, was of the suspended projection screen, displayed over the organist. This animation featured blue metalic soccer balls animated in time with the music, to suggest the graphic equalizer of a stereo system.
The organist himself was also animated (albeit subtly).he
Another recent job was for a high profile motion graphics job for the Honda Acura launch at an American car show. The graphics featured on large plasma screens around the exibit, showing scenic shots and stylistic details of the various new models.
This was a support role focusing on the individual car elements.
CAMERA STABILIZing
Similar to the tracking tools, various camera stabilizing tasks were performed as required for the job.
2d Camera tracking
2D camera tracking was used to plot the overall movement of the cars with regard to position and rotation values.
This proved very handy when trying to maintain an accurate mask, particularly when the footage was jerky at times.
Rotoscoping
The bulk of the work performed on this job was the fine art of rotoscoping. Careful attention to car profiles was needed, particularly for long or slow-moving sequences.
Again, this was a support role only. Main graphics and VFX compositing performed by the talented artists at Spinifex.
The main focus of the work was a product animation featuring the two logos of the Australian Socceroos football team and the FIFA 2006 World Cup in Germany.
In 2005 I worked collaboratively on some visual effects shots for the Target: Denim
Nation TVC produced by Collider in Sydney. I created a CG dragon tattoo that slithers
across a couples' skin as they embrace. This shot is at the end of the ad.
After experimenting with various effects methods and a variety of different character setups in Maya, the final solution ended up being the simplest: a 2D animation approach produced in After effects with Illustrator used to prepare the various elements of the dragon character.
Original Dragon Design.
VECTOR DRAGON DESIGN
The original dragon image was provided in JPEG format and needed to be traced in Adobe Illustrator before being split up into different named Illustrator layers.
This was like a sort of 2D rig. The illustrator file was then imported as a layered comp into After
Effects, allowing rotational animation on each limb.
DRAGON ANIMATION
Though nice as a still graphic,
for better and more controlled deformation I decided to uncoil the dragon into a straight pose so I could twist and coil him in any direction.
A dragon flying loop was then animated based on the straight dragon before then applying wave, twist and bulge deformers. Bezier masks were animated frame by frame to create the illusion of slithering across the actor's backs and arms.
FINAL STUDIO ANIMATION
Final animation and refinement was performed by Collider in Flash before going live to air on TV and in Cinemas.
In late 2004, Replay Studios completed a job producing a large selection of on screen graphics for an alternative music festival. These graphics were displayed on several large flat screens at key areas of the festival and on two projectors for the large format stadium screens.
Band show times and venue information were presented along with various graphics, promotional material and a large number of TVC's from the festival sponsors.
Main Festival ID Screen.
Festival day / nighttime info screens.
INFORMATION DELIVERY
The brief for this project was to convey large amounts of festival information with boldness, clarity and a strong consistency of style. This style was in circulation in a large print campaign and on the festival website.
GRAPHICS TEMPLATES
Graphics templates were prepared early on following the existing festival graphics. This gave more time for creative work to be done while still allowing a relatively quick turn-around for multiple screen generation. This approach proved invaluable when faced with minor tweaks and content changes as there was no need to recreate any elements from scratch but to simply edit the correct layer or source graphic file. This achieved maximum impact while keeping to the deadline.
