At the New York Festivals Awards, Animal Logic was awarded a Gold Medal World for Best Special Effects for its work on Fosters Australia Big Ad and VooDooDog won a Silver Award for Best Main Titles for its end credit sequence on NANNY MCPHEE.
To achieve the effect of a crowd of people running to form a person reaching for, and drinking a glass of Carlton Draught, Animal Logic used 3D computer-generated human extras for all the large, aerial crowd shots, clothed them in flowing robes and then brought them into specialized a crowd simulation software called Massive. 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.
Animal Logics crew collaborated closely with director Paul Middleditch from Plaza Films with 3D pre-vis commencing 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.
The environments for the ad were shot on location in New Zealand. As well as 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.
In the MCPHEE credits, the sequence follows the seven naughty children from the film, as they cause havoc and mayhem in their Victorian world. This is the second year VooDooDog has the won at the New York Festivals, last year they won the Gold Medal for its Emmy-nominated opening titled sequence for HBOs THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS.
The winners of the awards were announced at a black-tie presentation in New York City. The Awards ceremony was held at the Hudson Theatre in the heart of Manhattan's theater district and was attended by television, cinema & radio advertising awards winners and board members from all over the world.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
