KromA added an interesting twist to a new spot for Reebok, using CG to create visuals similar to the "frozen moment" effects made famous in THE MATRIX. Conceived by New York agency The Arnell Group, the spot promotes Reebok's GXT athletic shoe and a tie-in with Footlocker. A group of boys peer through a broken window in an old warehouse building at a muscular man as he pounds a punching bag, jumps rope and performs crunches. A mere look from the hard-bodied guy sends the kids fleeing for their lives.
KromA's created two sequences where the camera appears to make a 180-degree sweep around the man as time momentarily stands still. While in THE MATRIX, the effect was creating through the use of multiple still cameras, KromA's team of animators accomplished the trick by creating a photo-real model of the set and the actor.
"The production crew provided us with film of the scene, shot from five different angles," explained KromA visual effects supervisor Bert Yukich. "From those elements, we extracted animated textural elements that we then mapped onto the animation, resulting in a very realistic look."
The second of the two shots shows a close up of the man's shoes as he is jumping rope. Time freezes with the shoes in mid-air, but they change color as the camera moves to show that the shoe is available in black and white. KromA accomplished the color change by using Elastic Reality software to morph between CG models of the two shoes.
Amy Yukich was executive producer for KromA.
KromA is located at 9421 & 1/2 Pico Blvd.., Los Angeles, California 90035. For more information, call (310) 282-0370 or visit www.kroma.biz.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
