New Look, New Art, New Blog!

In the coming weeks, this blog will be undergoing some changes. Or maybe it will remain fundamentally the same, however it will begin to be a part of the creative process in a more direct way. Stay Tuned

Sony & Sucker Punch reveal inFamnous Second Son!

On Wednesday, Sony revealed the new Playstation 4 and the game inFamnous Second Son which looks like it is hailing in a new generation of graphics.  The in-game simulations left little in the way of effects needs but Digital Domain and Sony collaborated, playing to each's strengths and we created an engaging and interest stoking piece.


Half a million views in 2 days!                           Watch this video in 1080p HD!

With such amazing graphics rendered by Sony and Sucker Punch, the main job of our DD team was to tell the story of the surveillance video. Organizing, converting, retiming and making all the feeds look like actual video sources. Then mapping the screens onto the 3D environment and integrating it all into their world became our charge.
My favorite moment is when we go through the camera and screen into the surveillance room ala the Matrix. (0:29)

The great storytelling device of the control room allows the audience to see many angles and different aspects of what the PS4 can do, in a short period of time. It engages and entertains the viewer, creating a sense of depth, space and control of the action like actually playing the game. For the DD team, we got a real kick out of seeing the story emerge from the feeds. It was also very satisfying to create looks for the different type of cameras, and all the digital glitches and interference that goes with it.

Here is a cool article with a lot more info: http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/playstation-3/infamous-son/

Dead Space 3 Launch Trailer reaches 1 Million views!

Dead Space 3 Launch Trailer - "Take Down the Terror" reaches 1 million views with 2 weeks of its release! 

 The Digital Domain team knocks another one out of the park! Beautiful alien planet snowscapes and menacing alien markers make this live action spot special to fans and newbs alike. Beyond beautiful realism, the DD spot achieves an accurate representation of the game and an all stops pulled out snowfest! I am proud to have been part of one of the really fun projects and a really great game. Knowing how much the fans would appreciate the work we did, as I appreciate the artistry and drama the game has to offer. This is one of the main reasons I have for buying that new X-Box!
 
 

Several versions are up on the various video websites, totaling beyond one million views in 2 weeks. Special thanks to Barry, Aladino , Ron, Rebecca, Arthur, Jeff, John, Eric, Casey , Alex, Juan, both Neils and the whole team!

Nike Biomorph Wins Best in Show at Beverly Hills Dog Show!

Nike Biomorph Wins Best in Show at Beverly Hills Dog Show!
Well, not quite as prestigious... Nike Biomorph wins The VES Award (Visual Effects Society) for 

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial

Congratulations to Rafael Colon, Aladino Debert, David Liu, Nicola Wiseman and the entire Biomorph team!



I have said it before, but what a great opportunity it was to be a part of this commercial!

A complete list of winners is here in this FXGuide article: http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/visual-effects-society-winners-of-11th-annual-ves-awards

Hawken - a free-to-play, online, multiplayer, mech-based first-person shooter

HAWKEN is a free-to-play, online, multiplayer, mech-based first-person shooter that puts you in the pilot seat of a giant robotic war machine.

Jerry O'Flaherty, Borderlands 2, Medal of Honor/Linkin Park Castle of Glass video director asked me back to do compositing on the Cinematic trailer for Hawken! I really got into it!




You can play for free, and it aint one of those crappy Zynga games that are "compulsion loops" and not real games. They want the free experience to be amazing so you want to upgrade to show off!

Here is an article. http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/28/hawken%E2%80%99s-mark-long-on-core-free-to-play-and-vr-pornography/

Go to the site and sign up. Play on 12/12/12 www.playhawken.com

Borderlands 2 Launch Trailer Success!

With the release of Gearbox's game: Borderlands 2 this week, the launch trailer that I was part of the compositing team on, has released.

It is FREAKIN' AWESOME! The look of this game, and by extension this trailer is fantastic.



The You tube comments are hillarious:

omg omg omg omg omg omg oomg omg omg omg omg omg Im screaming like a little bitch omg omg omg omg (inside voice) I just had an orgasm(screaming again) omg omg!

Rick Cabrera 33 minutes ago 33  

Goodbye regular hygiene, sleeping, and eating habits, hello borderlands! 2!

imboringlycool 4 minutes ago

I want that last shot on my Desktop

Branderson20 8 minutes ago in playlist Uploaded videos 

Me watching this* Ooh!! Yes!! Double Siren action woo!! Hah Salvador is a midget! The old cast!!! WHY ISN'T IT MIDNIGHT RIGHT NOW!!!???!!! GOD THIS IS SOOO AWESOME!!

InhumanNomad 1 hour ago

Here is an IGN review of the game:

http://www.ign.com/games/borderlands-2/xbox-360-94188

 

 Game ranx says, "Fortunately, no spoilers are contained within. However, if you have something against guns or awesomeness, then I suggest not venturing further as the trailer has ample doses of both."

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/9325/article/borderlands-2-s-launch-trailer-reminds-you-to-bring-friends-to-the-mayhem/

 

Toyota GT86 commercial "The REAL DEAL" is a real hit!

      It seems like the Toyota GT86 commercial "The REAL DEAL" that I did compositing on at Digital Domain is a real hit!


Jalopnick.com praises the spot, saying, "The graphics look like something out of an old version of Grand Theft Auto. There are no sexy babes, or dancing hamsters, or dubstep. And yet the newest Subieyota ad is the best we've seen in years.

We just see a digital man, stuck in a grey, British, digital dystopia like something out of Brazil. He's forced into dull cars just like the ones Toyota regularly sells us, until (cue the Inception music) he finds the drift-happy GT86 and discovers what real driving and real living is about."

http://jalopnik.com/5936239/why-toyotas-brazil+like-commercial-is-the-best-car-ad-in-years

Other publications also have posted cool write ups.
http://creativity-online.com/work/toyota-the-real-deal/28871

Thanks to a fantastic VFX crew for pulling off the impossible!

Tweety sings Andy Griffith with me!

Transformers Fall of Cybertron E3 Trailer

In only a few weeks, over half a million people have seen this trailer, and it was a pleasure to be a part of. I have been living and breathing Transformers and it has been great. The team of artists really created something special.

Here are a few stills of my comps: (screenshots from the trailer posted by playstation)

Nike’s ”FlyKnit/Biomorph” Wins the Best Visual Effects 2012 AICP Award!

Nike’s ”FlyKnit/Biomorph” Winner of the Visual Effects Category @ the 2012 AICP Awards. http://www.aicpshow.com

The winners (including Nike Knit) are included in the permanent video collection at MOMA in NY!

 http://www.awn.com/news/awards/digital-domain-wins-aicp-show-vfx-award


 It was also a Top Ten Finalist on AICP’s Shortlist for Design category. Nike’s “FlyKnit/Biomorph” has been featured on Shoot Magazine’s Spring Top 10.
 
Nike "Biomorph/FlyKnit" from Aladino Debert on Vimeo.

Nike Knit

A great experience with a fantastic team. 
Created for the launch of a new series of knitted shoes for Nike, expected to be on sale by the 2012 Olympics in London. Directed by David Rosenbaum, Creative Director was Aladino Debert. I was Nuke Compositing at Digital Domain.

Nike "FlyKnit" from Aladino Debert on Vimeo.

CISCO Cars/ Robotarm

CISCO SYSTEMS commercial ADWEEK's Ad of the day!
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-cisco-137721

I was glad to return to Digital Domain to be a part of the compositing team!

Ad of the Day: Cisco

Firm returns to its roots in a spot with anthropomorphic robots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCxz-6g9lY



OgilvyWest, which has worked with the client for a decade, returns to the company's "Human Network" positioning and focuses on how Cisco makes innovation possible for its customers. The new work shows that the stuff of routing and switching doesn't have to be dull, though. The first spot in the series looks at how Cisco contributes to increased productivity in automotive manufacturing, with one robot—at work assembling a car—repairing another after it breaks down in the process.

Director: David Rosenbaum, Mothership
Production, Animation, Editorial and Visual Effects: Digital Domain

The Muppet Movie - hairy compositing!

What a stroke of luck to be asked to come on as part of the Look FX compositing team for The Muppets!

There are a few awesome articles describing the work we did. And There is a video montage http://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-muppets-its-time-to-raise-the-curtain/ right here which shows some of my final composites. Look for Scooter at Google, Harry blowing up Mt. Rushmore, and the driving sequence.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/244984/qanda_how_digital_effects_gave_the_muppets_new_freedom.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1204342/

Mercedes - Escape the map!

Mercedes - Escape the map! A lot to be thankful for! Like working on this cool commercial/film.

A 4 minute film/contest to win a new Mercedes. Digital Domain teamed up with director Carl Rinsch, RSA and AMV BBDO for “Escape the Map,” a surreal POV journey into a world inspired by Google Street View. With characters ravaged by digital artifacts, blurred visages and time echoes, this piece incorporated a ton of 3D Nuke Compositing and breaking all the rules!


http://motionographer.com/2011/11/21/mercedes-escape-the-map/

http://www.escapethemap.co.uk/

http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2011/mercedes-escape-the-map/

From the release:

Digital Domain Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Barton, who is currently working with Rinsch on his upcoming feature for Universal Pictures, “47 Ronin,” led the team. His idea was to use photogrammetry — a technique in which measurements are taken from photographs to create real-world objects — to create the world. All of the live action was shot in Hong Kong, with Barton scouting and shooting iconic locations which were later used in the world-building. Additional green-screen shoots were staged in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

“We first had to develop the visual language of the world,” Barton said. “We took inspiration from Google Street view and replicated that, but in moving video. As photos are stitched together, they sometimes seam strangely. They might not line up, or two buildings might occupy the same space, or people get cut in half. We played a lot with how images would load or resolve, or react when a whole new set of photos came in to reset the world. Here, when you explore you have more options and more viewpoints. You can decide where to look, walk, or drive and your perspective and resolution update accordingly.”

CLIENT: Mercedes Benz
PRODUCT: C63 AMG
TITLE: “The Escape”

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Ltd UK
Creative Team: Paul Knott & Tim Vance
Creative Director: Tim Riley
Agency Producer: Emmalou Johnson
Board Account Director: Ben King
Account Director: Rob Tauscher
Account Manager: Nick Andrew

PRODUCTION COMPANY: RSA Films, Ltd. UK
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Producer: Margo Mars

FACILITY COMPANY HONG KONG: RSA Asia
Hong Kong Facility Producer: Marco Leung

FACILITY COMPANY Los Angeles: RSA LA
LA Facility Producer: Christy Lindgren
DOP: Eric Steelberg

FACILITY COMPANY Los Angeles: RSA LA
LA Facility Producer: Christy Lindgren
DOP: Eric Steelberg

CASTING DIRECTOR: Denise Chamain
TALENT: Mariah Bonner

VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc.
300 Rose Avenue, Venice CA 90291
Chief Creative Officer, EP: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer: Tanya Cohen
Head of Production: Scott Gemmell
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jay Barton
CG Supervisor: Ronald D. Herbst
VFX Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
VFX Coordinator: David Ziek
Avid Edit: Todd Miller
Avid Edit: Brian Miller
Avid Edit: David Hsin
Digital Standards Consultant: Jeff Heusser
Previs: Roy Sato
Flame Artist: Paul Kirsch
PHOTOGRAMMETRY: Scott Edelestein
PHOTOGRAMMETRY: Gil Hacco
GENERALIST: Daisuke Nagae
GENERALIST: Brian Creasey
GENERALIST: Casey Benn
GENERALIST: Rick Thomas
MAYA/HD FX: Adrian Graham
Maya FX: Lee Carlton
MATTE PAINT: Zach Christian
MATTE PAINT: Ting Lo
TRACK: Michael Lori
TRACK: Montu Jariwarla
TRACK: Roxanne Zuckerman
Roto Artist: Edgar Diaz
Roto Artist: Nathalie Gonthier
Rigging: Derek Crosby
Compositor Supervisor: Rafael Colon
Nuke Compositor: Chia-chi Hu
Nuke Compositor: Sven Dreesbach
Nuke Compositor: Aruna Inversin
Nuke Compositor: Scott Hale
Motion Graphics Artist: Cody Williams
Digital Studio Engineer: David Bryan
Digital Studio Engineer: Fernando Pantoja

OFFLINE EDIT: Stitch Editing
Editor: Frank Effron

DIGITAL PRODUCTION COMPANY: Unit9
Interactive Director: Rob Corradi

SOUND DESIGN: Factory Studios
Sound Engineers: Tom Joyce and Anthony Moore

COMPOSER: 11:59
Track: ‘Trepanation’

The secret is out! Star Trek The Next Generation Digitally Remastered!

The secret is out! This is one of the exciting projects I worked on this summer! http://www.startrek.com/article/the-next-generation-blu-rays-launch-in-2012

I had the honor of compositing visual effects for the digital remastering of Star Trek The Next Generation at CBS Digital. For the upcoming release, we did the pilot episode and several others. Eventually CBS will release all the episodes on Blu-Ray.

Thank you to CBSD for including me on such a historic venture. It was a great project with a top notch team!

Silver Lion @ 'Cannes International Festival of Creativity for Mini Flow Spot!

I just found out that the commercial,
“Mini Countryman Flow” that I did Compositing on at Sway Studios won a Silver Lion at 'The Cannes International Festival of Creativity' for Film Craft.

Festival Details here

Type of Entry:	Film Craft
Category:	Special Effects & Computer Graphics
Title:	MINI COUNTRYMAN FLOW
Advertiser/Client:	MINI WORLDWIDE
Product/Service:	MINI COUNTRYMAN
Entrant Company:	BSUR Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Advertising Agency:	BSUR Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Post Production:	Sway Studio
Special Effects/Computer Graphics:	SWAY Studios

X-Men: First Class, Visual Effects @ Digital Domain: First Rate

Digital Domain delivers infinity in the mirror room sequence and headquarters destruction scene. The collaboration was a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on a truly great movie. I grew up with the X-Men, reading the comics, learning to draw the characters and watching them come to life with amazement in cartoons and movies my whole life. I have also wanted to work at DD since I was at SCAD. Here's a movie review and links of interest.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_first_class/

Kevin Bacon, Shaw, destroys an atrium, an environment augmented by DD with fully CG explosions, debris and fire. “Our atrium explosions were led by effects animation supervisor Brian Gazdik,” says Kalaitzidis. “We used Houdini to break things and add fire on top of that. It included desks, and ceilings and windows and even typewriters on the desks. In the past we’d use real pyro elements but I felt like this was one of the shows where we didn’t need to do that for CG fire. And not only did we have CG fire but all the characters shooting at Shaw from the top of the atrium were all CG and mo-capped.”

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/making-mutants-for-x-men-first-class/

After attempting to draw the nuclear power of the submarine, Shaw is confronted by Lensherr in a ‘mirror room’, an environment shot completely against greenscreen. Once filmed, DD assembled some rough post-viz to help establish the key beats and rudimentary, but multiple, reflections. “That was approved by John Dykstra and then we came up with a look-dev for the mirror room,” says Kalaitzidis. “We used reference from Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee, in the mirror maze. That showed the imperfections and the hues and mutual density that we needed to add in.”

Witness-cam footage of Shaw and Lensherr, again, was used to copy their performances via roto-mation. “Using this animation,” explains Kalaitzidis, “we reflected CG doubles into the mirrors themselves. They’re fighting each other and there’s breaking glass which was done with Maya and Houdini, and then composited in Nuke.”

Visual Effects for Pandemic

2011 Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection: "Pandemic"

Lance Weiler, Co-Director of "The Last Broadcast" and Director of "Head Trauma" has his latest short film in this years Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. I was asked to create visual effects for the film and worked on around 30 shots for "Pandemic"

An article on Wired.com goes into more detail here.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/01/sundance-film-festival-is-ground-zero-for-lance-weilers-pandemic-1-0/

Watch the Short Film right here:

The Mini Countryman "Flow" commercial

@ Sway Studio, Culver City to create photo-real C.G. cars invading Milan.
This new Mini has 4 doors, is 4 wheel drive. The commercial was filmed on super 35 mm in Milan, Italy.
Super trivia fact: The Sway Studio Mini Flow team grew mustaches to show their team spirit, much to the concern of the client and significant others.

"This week MINI is debuting the European TV spot “Flow” for the launch of the Countryman" according to motoringfile.com.
Here are some articles about the commercial, and links of interest.

http://www.motoringfile.com/2010/09/01/mini-launches-new-countryman-tv-spot/

http://www.motorward.com/2010/09/video-mini-countryman-flow-commercial/

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/mini-launches-countryman-innovative-tv-spot-flow-24017.html

Katy Perry's California Gurls music video

Katy Perry has a new album and she has teamed up with photographer/ artist Will Cotton to create the cover art, and the look of this new video.

I was invited back to Motion Theory to complete the video. This entailed compositing green screen elements of Katy Perry and dancers into beach scenes, candy cane forests, and other Will Cotton/ Candyland inspired landscapes.

This job meant separating foreground characters from their green screens on over two hundred shots. Characters interact with a variety of imaginary creatures from angry gummy bears, a nasty gingerbread man, and candy cane snakes among others.
Here's a teaser for the video, because the video, on youtube has the embed function disabled. So if you want to see the full video, you must watch it on youtube, here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwE-SLnLkqY&NR=1



Here's some behind the scenes footage from the set.



And of course, to see some of my shots from the video in the context of my reel, go to www.ScottHaleMedia.com