LIGHT SPEED's original spot concept involved shooting a live action car and a lot of practical effects and then compositing the whole thing and enhancing it with a small number of 3D effects. So the scope of the original project was originally about 10% CG, but because of what DD was able to achieve in the digital realm, ended up being almost entirely CG and/or CG enhanced in the final execution.
Watch the spot at AWNtv.
VFX Supervisor Jonah Hall was involved from the early stages of pre-production and worked closely with the director and agency creative team to define the spot concepts. In fact, since Digital Domain's car pipeline is so well established -- the team has literally completed hundreds of CG cars for film and television -- the biggest challenge didn't lie in the execution of the CG and effects, but in defining the look of the comet light streak that carries through and largely sets the tone for the entire commercial.
The look of the streak evolved through several color and textural iterations to become the running bright white blast of light that highlights the car's sleek features.
The Digital Domain VFX team supervised a practical effects shoot on the Sony lot to capture the live-action material. The crew had five cameras on set, a motion control system, and a buck to shoot the car interior. Digital Domain then set up what were basically tables with different science experiments going on -- such as light shows and lasers shooting through foam that the team used indirectly. So instead of applying these practical effects directly, Digital Domain built digital effects with these as inputs, using the effects in combination with CG. The production team shot the car, Digital Domain rotoscoped it out, color graded and lit it to match the CG car, and then reinserted the car and created the digital effects swirling around it.
Credits:
Client: Lincoln
Product: Lincoln MKZ
Air Date for LIGHT SPEED: 3/30/09
Advertising Agency: Team Detroit/Dearborn, MI
Exec. Creative Director: Greg Braun
Art Director: Adam Hull
Writer: Nicholas Flora
Producer: Mike Stark
Senior Account Manager: Heather Miller
Production Company: RSA Films/Los Angeles, CA
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Director of Photography: Claudio Miranda
Executive Producer: Marjie Abrahams
Line Producer: Annie Johnson
Animation & Visual Effects: Digital Domain/Venice, CA
President of Commercials, Exec. Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jonah Hall
CG Supervisor: James Atkinson
VFX Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
VFX Coordinator: Stephanie Escobar
Flame Artist: Pilon Lectez
Flame Artist Assistant Matt Bramante
Nuke Compositor: Rafael F. Colon
Nuke Compositor: Krista Benson
Houdini Artist: James Atkinson
Houdini Artist: Jason Mortimer
Digital Artist: Casey Benn
Roto Artist: Hilery Johnson Copeland
Roto Artist: Karin Last
Roto Artist: David Wu
Roto Artist: Kanae Morton
On Set Tracker: Scott Edelstein
Integration Tracker: Som Shankar
Editorial House: Final Cut/LA/Santa Monica, CA
Editor: Stephen Berger
Exec. Producer: Kelly Garcia
Music/Band: Shiny Toy Guns
Sound House Design: Ringside Creative
Location: Oak Park, MI
Sound Designer: Jay Scott
Audio Post/Mix House: Ringside Creative
Location: Oak Park, MI
Mixer: Jay Scott
