LocoMotion Studios, an Austin, Texas-based motion-capture service bureau, recently completed the Corona commercial "Perico" using the award-winning Vicon 8 optical motion-capture system. This 30-second commercial, created for Atomic Pictures in San Antonio, Texas, features several characters who emerge from water drops off the sides of a bottle of Corona and a keg of beer to create a festive environment that recreates a bar at a tropical resort. All of the dancing and acrobatic moves were captured using a 10-camera Vicon 8 motion-capture system.

Image Courtesy of iXL Digital Video Group

Image Courtesy of Josell Public Relations

Quiet Man has created the visual effects for the spots "Turkey" and "China," from the new four spot Fox Sports campaign via agency Cliff Freeman & Partners (NYC). "To convincingly create the effect of diving off a 50-meter cliff onto dry ground, I needed footage of a stuntman diving into an airbag, and a shot of a dummy falling onto the ground from an elevation of about 12 feet," said Johnnie Semerad, Quiet Man founder and lead visual effects artist. "With that we could then create a composite effect, using Discreet Logic Inferno, of the free-fall.

R!OT has provided visual effects for a new 30-second spot introducing the Escape, Ford's sporty, new SUV. The commercial opens with a simple black on white graphic reading "consumer affairs director." Several letters pull out of the graphic and reform as part of a logo on the back of a surfboard hitched to the top of an Escape driving along an animated beach.

Santa Monica, California-based The Joneses' Jim Manera has directed an effects-filled new campaign for Chevrolet's Silverado Heavy Duty. Each of the three 30-second spots, featuring effects created by DIGITAL DOMAIN, pictures giant workmen and a giant Silverado operating in otherwise normal-sized environments. In "Construction," a workman picks up a 50-feet long tool belt as he walks past a normal-sized skeletal frame of a new building. In "Ranch," cowboys use a giant Silverado to help track down a runaway horse.

iXL Digital Video Group has wrapped up the visual effects for a new 30-second spot promoting the new toy from Tiger Electronics entitled Chibibotto. In "Attack of the Chibibotto," a giant Chibibotto wreaks havoc in city, resembling a cheap GODZILLA movie. "The spot is an intriguing hybrid between retro monster movie and techno chic," said iXL Digital Video Group senior visual effects designer Doug Dimon.

ViewPoint Studios has created a new hyper-realistic 3D animated spot for Gillette's Venus, a women’s 3-blade razor. "The script called for extreme macro cinematography with complex motion and invisible rigging," said creative director Glenn Robbins. "CGI was the only way to go." Utilizing Maya and Flame compositing the 3D scenes were seamlessly integrated with live-action footage. Starting with an overhead view of a contemporary bathroom, a tub transitions into the razor’s head, showing off the three strategically placed blades and pivotal mechanism.

PRoGRESS provided design solutions for the new faster-paced Cisco ad campaign. The four spots share the common theme of the Internet being a tool that can help businesses overcome obstacles to their growth. PRoGRESS used type animation as a metaphor for Cisco being the bridge spanning the digital divide. In the opening of each spot, digital information travels along a glowing blue digital line in the center of the screen and then a computer carat wipes the information away leading to the next scene. "Hotel" then presents a real-time tutorial with streaming video and 3D illustrations.

Class-Key Chew-Po Commercials has created two "Election" spots for General Mills' Cocoa Puffs cereal. "Election: Part I" has Sonny the cuckoo bird campaigning against two other candidates and promising to put real chocolate money in specially packaged Cocoa Puffs cereal boxes. In the second spot, Sonny wins the election and announces that for a limited time chocolate coins will be in all Cocoa Puffs Cereal boxes.

Blur Studio has created a new CGI spot promoting Hasbro Interactive's new CD-Rom game PAC-MAN: ADVENTURES IN TIME. In the spot, Pac-Man is pursued through a maze by a quartet of ravenous ghosts and once cornered he turns toward the camera and leaps through the screen. The ghosts follow Pac-Man into the real world but are stymied when he swallows a "Magic Power Pill." "We went for a styling that was not quite photo-real," said Blur Studio CG supervisor Aaron Powell.

Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design has created photo-realistic scissors and performed the compositing for 3M's Scotch Tear-by-Hand Packaging Tape. In the 15-second "No More Scissors," a fleet of scissors float from their worldly bonds and head into deep space to form a ring around a distant planet, their former users now free to tear fresh tape without them. Rhinoceros project leader/animation director Arman Matin said, "The sheer number of scissors and the data involved made the 3M project a tremendous task to pull off. There were literally millions of scissors to render out.

TOPIX/Mad Dog has completed the digital compositing and clean-up, character animation and synchronization of elements for six 15-second spots and one regional 30-second spot for Thrifty Car Rental. Set against a clean, white background, each of the spots features a different twist or gag, like a duck swimming in a convertible during a rain storm and a car being swallowed by a giant hole. T/MD inferno* artist Marco Polsinelli said, "For "Rainy Day," we proposed to line the interior of the car with a water-resistant foam core and fill it with water.

Click 3X has created effects for the new Disney Store spots highlighting merchandise for the live-action feature 102 DALMATIANS. The 30-second "Pool" has Dalmatians shaking their spots onto a rack of white coats. A series of real Dalmatians were shot on green screen, as well as a still plate for the far wall. The Click 3X CGI department then created a photo-realistic floor with reflecting puddles matching the movement of the camera.

Spontaneous Combustion, a digital studio specializing in the creation of visual effects and design for the advertising, broadcast and film industries, has created and composited a photo-realistic 3D spot for a new Circuit City campaign. "Digital Santa" opens in a world where elves act as caddies and Santa Claus spends his time golfing. The Spontaneous Combustion team needed to make the effects seamless by replacing one of the backgrounds in the first spot with a blue sky.

Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design has created the design and imagery for a new series of Victoria's Secret commercials for the company's "Satin" line. Each of the three 30-second spots: "Rubies," "Diamonds" and "Emeralds" called for intricate design work in inferno* that highlights both the Victoria's Secret models and the "nine jewel-tone colors" of the new line. "The interesting challenge of the Victoria's Secret spots was to use Inferno to marry extreme close-up shots of these tiny gems with the live footage of the models," said Rhinoceros inferno* artist Vico Sharabani.

ViewPoint Studios has completed the re-design of CNBC’s RIVERA LIVE with a set of new IDs. The total program package included a new show logo, opening title, bumpers and support graphics for live interviews. "CNBC wanted an energetic open to showcase the best of Geraldo as RIVERA LIVE," said Michael Frederick, ViewPoint Studios design director. "The open portrays his active involvement, covering the day’s top stories from wherever the action is.

Will Vinton Studios has finished two live-action/CGI spots highlighting Midway Games' NFL BLITZ 2000 and READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING ROUND 2. The humorous spots were directed by Mike Wellins, who in the past has directed spots for Almond Joy, Chili's, Kikkoman, Mirinda, Pringles and ABC. In "Good Clean Fight," highlighting READY 2 RUMBLE BOXING ROUND 2, a 3D animated afro style boxer warms up by punching a disco ball and by the end we know that he isn't going to give a good clean fight.

hey!, a New York multi-disciplinary design and production studio, has wrapped on "Nick Arithmetic," a 40-second global network image spot for Nick's international markets. hey! took still photographs of kids in various poses. The images were composited, along with graphic elements built in Illustrator and Photoshop, with animated backgrounds that string together the entire spot.

ViewPoint Studios has zapped up the relaunch of technology channel ZDTV as TechTV with a new ID campaign. The ViewPoint team developed concepts based on both the evolution of the network and the personality of the new logo. In a montage of live-action and visual effects work, a biological twist turns simple cell division into the logo at the microscopic level. Another ID gives a science lesson that demonstrates the fundamentals of logo conception. Maya was used to create the animation. "There were very few limitations," said ViewPoint Studios' design director, Michael Frederick.