Brickyard VFX recently used boujou, the 3D camera matchmoving software from 2d3 to complete a complex shot tracking for PODS UNITE, a new commercial promoting Volkswagen's New Beetle and the Apple iPod. A longtime 2d3 customer based out of Boston, Brickyard handled all visual effects and compositing for the 30-second tie-in spot, produced via advertising agency Arnold Worldwide.
PODS UNITE plays on the innovative design and similar sleek style the two brands share to peak interest in a special offer: "Buy a New Beetle. Get a new iPod." The spot's creative treatment, which sees a woman taking the two products on the road, culminates in a final shot that pulls all the way from the iPod display face out of the vehicle's open sunroof and beyond.
This last scene presented a challenge in that the long, high pullout envisioned by the creative team could not be achieved as a single, seamless camera move using the physical rig. It would instead, as Brickyard determined, involve comping in a detailed graphic of the iPod screen, marrying this with a number of different camera passes and extending the length of the shot virtually "in post."
"The goal was to start things off with a high-res blow up of the iPod display at the head of the shot and work outward from there," explained Brian Drewes, Brickyard's managing director. "For additional shot coverage, five or six separate motion control passes were filmed using a 'buck' a car you can take apart like a jigsaw puzzle. Some were done tight near the dashboard to close in on the iPod's face, while others were done out the top of the car because the camera rig wouldn't fit through the sunroof."
Using flame, Brickyard composited all of the passes together and worked out the final move. Once the move was correct, the resulting clip was tracked in boujou, allowing the pullout effect from the iPod graphics to be reliably achieved.
"boujou came up with the goods quickly and easily," commented Brickyard lead artist Geoff McAuliffe. "It would have taken substantially longer in flame to obtain a track of this quality. Using the 3D boujou track, I was quickly able to generate miscellaneous matte passes to aid in the final color correction. boujou is an excellent, truly useful tool that contributes to both the quality of the work, and the swiftness of its execution."
Other credits include:Patrick Poulation, Dave Waller - flame artistsRobin Hobart, Peter Bullis - rotoscope artistsEvan Olson - 3D artistKyle Obley - post assistant
Brickyard VFX (www.brickyardvfx.com) completes leading visual effects for television and commercial markets. Clients include Budweiser, Priceline.com and Monster.com.
Widely used on commercial, television (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) and feature film projects (THE MATRIX RELOADED), boujou has revolutionized tracking camera or object movement, a post-production or visual effects necessity whenever digital elements need to be seamlessly added into live-action scenes. boujou is available for Mac OS X, Linux Red Hat and Windows platforms, and is also used for games development, architectural visualization and industrial design projects. For more information, visit www.2d3.com.
OMG plc (www.omg3d.com) is the parent company of wholly owned subsidiaries 2d3 and Vicon Motion Systems, developers of the advanced motion-capture systems.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
