Huge crowd scenes were needed for Carlton Draughts latest advertising epic, the BIG AD, a hilarious parody of pompous beer ads, with an ode to BRAVEHEART comprised of unlikely armies of choral-robed gladiators singing about the glories of beer, accompanied by the bombastic CARMINA BURANA.
Animal Logic created 3D computer-generated human extras for all the large, aerial crowd shots, clothed them in flowing robes and then brought them into Massive, the award-winning AI-driven crowd simulation software from Massive Software.
They were then replicated thousands of times over, with each character being assigned its own random movement and direction. Animal Logic technical directors then added behavioral controls and performance parameters that allowed the digital humans to respond to their environment and to the actions of the people surrounding them. This process created the realistic simulation of thousands of human extras choreographed into the stunning mountain valley in which the ad was set.
3D previs commenced about a month prior to the shoot to determine the camera angles of the crowd shots and the number of people that would appear in each shot making up the various shapes. From our initial meeting with [director] Paul Middleditch and the agency when we first saw the animatic and heard the audio track, we knew this would be a fantastic job to work on, said Animal Logic vfx supervisor Andrew Jackson.
Animal Logics crew collaborated closely with Middleditch from Plaza Films and Oscar-winning DP Andrew Lesnie (THE LORD OF THE RINGS). Our job was to make sure the effects shots were completely seamless with the live action and didnt detract from the humor of the spot in any way, added Animal Logic producer Caroline Renshaw.
The environments for the ad were shot on location in New Zealand. In addition to integrating the 3D crowds into these environments, Animal Logic was responsible for creating matte paintings to enhance the backgrounds, giving them a more epic, mountainous feel. Massive is a recent addition to the suite of tools being used and developed by Animal Logic artists on a range of television commercial and feature film projects.
Animal Logic credits include:* VFX Supervisor: Andrew Jackson * Lead Compositor: Angus Wilson * VFX Producer: Caroline Renshaw
Animal Logic (www.animallogic.com) is a digital production company based in Sydney, Australia. Established in 1991 as a design-based visual effects house for television commercials, the company soon broadened its creative platform to include visual effects and digital animation for film and television series. Animal Logics visual effects credits for feature film include HERO, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, MATRIX: RELOADED, THE MATRIX and MOULIN ROUGE. Recent television commercial credits include Baz Luhrmanns commercial for Chanel No. 5, starring Nicole Kidman and Visa BIRDS starring Richard Gere. Animal Logic is also responsible for designing and building the 3D environments that feature as part of Cartoon Networks on-air look.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
