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The Mill Lets Lava Flow For Guinness

London-based visual effectsfacility The Mill recently completed visual effects work for thelatest Guinness commercial "Lava" by way of agency AMV. DirectorRupert Sanders shot the spot on location in Poland. In thecommercial, a small village is hit by an exploding volcano and lavaflows through the streets. People are fleeing their homes but thelocal bar is in jeopardy, so the townsmen head off to save it. Theymanage to stop the flow of hot lava but must walk across it to gettheir Guinness. The Mill's Dave Levy worked for a month on acustomized 3D shader to create the flowing lava seen travelingthrough the streets, while 3D artist Russell Tickner was back inPoland at a steel foundry shooting footage of molten iron. The customprogram allowed Tickner to use the footage and create a uniquerendering of lava, then flame artist Ant Walsham and his team trackedthe CG molten lava into the live action plates. They also tookelements from the molten steel footage and composited them onto theroad surrounding the bar. In addition to building the volcano whichsits behind the town, Walsham added flames to many of the scenes andenhanced the look of the lava that was walked over to get to the bar.