Press release from Zoic Studios:
Culver City, CA: Zoic Studios [1] has promoted rising visual effects talent Levi Ahmu to Creative Director. The move comes on the heels of Ahmu’s visually inventive, Zoic-produced :15, “Show Us Your Skin,” for Dove out of David Brown Entertainment, featuring inspired mosaic imagery. Ahmu also seamlessly weaves inventive digital artistry with an authentic live action storyline in the recent spot “Livstand” for Yahoo’s new digital magazine launch. Serving both as creative director and live action director for both projects, Ahmu demonstrates his knack for flexing his creative outlook on all phases of a project, from concept to post-production.
Ahmu, who was recently included in Brief Magazine’s Top 25 Creative Executives Under 30 list, started at Zoic as a compositor in 2006 and quickly rose within the ranks. His credits include VFX-heavy spots, television sequences, music videos and video game teasers for the likes of Yahoo!, California Raisins, Electronic Arts and TV shows True Blood, Fringe and CSI to name a few.
In the visually-driven “Show Us Your Skin” for Dove, a photo mosaic was generated and stitched using AndreaMosaic, which divided a hero image into a grid in which each square was examined for color ranges and paired with an appropriate corresponding image from a database of 3500+ photos of real women lensed under Ahmu’s supervision. The hero mosaic was then broken up in Cinema 4D using Mograph Effectors and animated to move past camera and create a feeling of spatial vastness.
Once this epic effect was complete, the team at Zoic composited the animation, along with live action footage and additional photographs, in After Effects to create the visually stunning final spot. Additional effects such as transitions and titles were also created in After Effects.
“Levi is the perfect expression of today’s Creative Director,” says Zoic Studios Co-Founder Chris Jones. “Pop culture savvy, technically adroit and passionate about visual communication in its many forms, he will make an excellent creative director, and the youngest in Zoic’s history.”
Diving into his new role, Ahmu has also recently displayed his acute technical prowess and keen eye for visual storytelling as Cinematic Creative director on the Skylanders—Spyro’s Adventure game title.
An avid fan of the VFX in his favorite shows created by Zoic, Ahmu was drawn to the company while studying screenwriting and production at USC Film School. Officially joining the team in 2008, Ahmu quickly became a rising star armed with an extensive foundation of skills in visual effects and digital production. Ahmu, a true filmmaker at heart, makes it his mission to ensure that the overall narrative is the driving force on every project he directs. Because of these shared philosophies Levi is the perfect match for Zoic whose sincere goal is to tell extraordinary stories.
Links:
[1] http://www.zoicstudios.com/