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Copenhagen-based VFX Studio Ghost, relied heavily on eyeon’s Fusion to create a CG talking bear with a limited attention span for the recent 30-second spot, “Tulip Bear.”
Jeppe Nygaard Christensen CEO and VFX
Supervisor at Ghost, explained that, for this entirely CG
commercial, Ghost had to use many 'weapons from its arsenal.'
Click
on the image below to visit the Ghost VFX website and view the commercial.
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“The spot was brilliantly directed by Stevan Treshow,” said Christensen. “Stevan has a great reputation for doing live-action commercials with little or no effects but, with this spot, he wanted to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by computer-generated imagery. He wanted to be able to control the design of the environment, the time of day, the different types of background motion and, of course, the look and movement of the bear itself.”
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The Danish ad for Tulip low-fat pâté is set up as an interview with a bear, and Christensen explained that he used a complex motion capture system to achieve a realistic feel for the interview.
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| “It was of utmost importance for the director that the acting between the camera, the interviewer, and the bear was as true to a real life situation as possible,” said Christensen. “We decided to combine motion capture for the actor playing the bear with a live action camera along with the interviewer's microphone. One unintended benefit to this was that we had actual footage of the guy playing the bear so we were able to get an approved offline of the spot long before the first rendering of the bear and its environment.”
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He explained that the company used a combination of Maya and Vue7 for the background plates, together with the Maya plug-in Shave & a Haircut for the bear. Renderman was used for all 3D rendering, while Fusion was used for compositing. Grading was done in Scratch.
“Fusion has always been our preferred compositing tool,” said Christensen. “For this spot, as for most other spots we produce, we feel we have complete control when taking the output from our renders and turning them into believable final shots.”
“We've been using Fusion ever since we started in 1999, and, today, Fusion is our main compositing system,” he added. We do have other tools but, for any complex compositing, we would never consider anything but Fusion. What we like most about Fusion is the fact that it works, and does so really fast!”
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Founded in 1999 by Jeppe Nygaard
Christensen, Martin Gårdeler, and Aksel Studsgarth, Ghost has
grown to be one of the largest visual effects facilities in
Scandinavia, offering everything from initial concept to final
online and everything in between, including grading, editing,
visual effects supervision, direction, 3D, and compositing. With
a proven track record in feature films and commercials,
domestic as well as internationally, the company's credit list
includes work on movies like Hellboy 2, Die Another Day, Harry
Potter 5, 10,000 BC, as well as numerous commercials for
companies like Sony Ericsson, LEGO, Bacardi, and Coca Cola.
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“I think the strength of Ghost VFX
lies in the fact that we really love what we do. We have a
strong passion for creating beautiful imagery and impressive
visual effects, and I think we are keeping that passion alive
by always trying to make it just a little better,” said
Christensen.
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Image courtesy Ghost VFX. All
rights reserved.
Digital Fusion, eyeon Fusion, eyeon
Generation, eyeon Vision and eyeon Rotation are registered
trademarks and/or trademarks of eyeon Software Inc. All
trademarks, company names and products are the property of
their respective holders. Copyright © 1988-2009 eyeon Software
Inc. All rights reserved.
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