Each year, AWN puts out a call to its readers working in commercials, music videos, IDs and game cinematics to compile a showcase of what they feel is the best of their work. We compile one piece from each company and each year “Hot Spots” gets bigger and better. In addition to this year’s reader submitted work, we have a special section of the Showcase, dedicated to the best of the best from Stash DVD Magazine.

A52’s Honda Fit Food Chain

A52
“The finished spots really represent director Phil Joanou’s vision, and I think he was blown away. Overall, the job went really smoothly, and it felt like everyone was on the same page the whole way through.” — A52’s Patrick Murphy.

“One of our biggest challenges was giving the agency the comfort level that we could create the cars in these spots in CG and have no one question their believability.” — A52’s Andy Hall.

“I could not be happier with the work A52 did on this project. They went above and beyond the call of duty, adding detail and dimension to both spots that were extraordinary. The CG work on the cars was fantastic and the background city they created for the Food Chain spot exceeded my expectations. Once again, A52 proved why they are one of the best and most creative EFX houses in town.” — MJZ director Phil Joanou.

With A52’s Andy Hall, Patrick Murphy and Ron Cosentino on the set, director Phil Joanou filmed all four vehicles shown during the morning, with very specific lighting conditions. With that footage and a concept sketch of a futuristic city, under Joanou’s supervision, the finished spot was created almost entirely in Maya, using a 2D matte painting of the cityscape enhanced with futuristic CG architectural highlights. The models of the CG vehicles were rendered to perfectly match the live-action vehicles filmed on set, including the use of tracking data from the practical footage to match camera-weave and provide more fluidity in the finished animation. With the CG vehicles composited into the cityscape matching editor Brad Waskewich’s cut, Murphy and his fellow Autodesk Inferno artists added debris and dust to the vehicles, tire marks and debris to the road, and atmosphere to the cityscape. With the goal of giving the city a “gritty, lived-in” look, Murphy also performed a painstaking color-grade in Inferno to properly depict the time of day, adding warmth to the top of the frame and subtle blues to the bottom.

Credits for Honda Fit Food Chain
A52
Exec producer: Mark Tobin
Producer: Ron Cosentino
On-set vfx supervisors: Patrick Murphy & Andy Hall
Inferno artists: Patrick Murphy, Ben Looram & Justin Blaustein
3D supervisor: Andy Hall
3D animators: Dan Gutierrez, Chris Janney, Kirk Shintani & Max Ulichney
Matte painters: Helen Maier & James Pastorius
RPA
Creative directors: Joe Baratelli & David Smith
Agency exec producer: Gary Paticoff
Copywriter: Todd Carey
Art director: Curt Johnson
Live-action director: Phil Joanou, MJZ
Live-action director of photography: Jeff Cutter
Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Brad Waskewich
Elias Arts
Music: Chris Mann
740 Sound
Sound Design: Eddie Kim
Lime Studios
Final Mix: Loren Silber