For global creative agency ATTIK’s new cross-media campaign for the 2011 Scion tC for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., and for the agency’s new Scion launch campaign for Toyota Canada, Imaginary Forces (IF) partnered with the VFX innovators at SWAY Studio to create powerful, cross-media, branded content under the direction of ATTIK’s Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director Simon Needham.
Released so far in the U.S. as a :60 3D and 2D cinema spot, in high-profile U.S. television and cable outlets as :30 and :15 spots, in Canada as a unique :60 3D and 2D cinema spot, on video billboards in Canada as a :10 loop, and debuting soon online at www.TakeOntheMachine.com as an interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure” feature, the stunning visual content conceived by Needham, ATTIK Creative Director Ron Lim and their colleagues relied upon the artists at Imaginary Force
s to conceptualize and design the look-and-feel of a menacing machine city, and to supervise the construction of that urban world at SWAY. ATTIK and IF also called upon SWAY to execute and finish all the theatrical and broadcast content.
The U.S. cinema spot entitled “Take On the Machine” can be viewed here: http://www.vimeo.com/14864806.
“We are very proud and grateful to have a successful and long standing relationship with Scion, where everyone involved is constantly challenged to create and deliver content that is at the forefront of innovation, and always pushing the boundaries as far as possible,” said Needham. “Through their contributions to our latest campaigns, the artists and producers at Imaginary Forces and SWAY Studio have proven that they are leaders in executing premium content that blows audiences away.”
SWAY’s exper
tise with photo-real cars and driving simulation allowed an incredible level of realism during the dangerous journeys through Machine City. The campaign was edited by IF, working closely with ATTIK and SWAY’s pre-vis team. IF also provided creative direction and concept art for how these environments should look and feel, as well as editorial direction. Charles Khoury worked with Justine Gerenstein, a frequent IF collaborator on ATTIK projects, to establish the edits. His collaborations with staff and freelance designers and animators provided key visual references for SWAY.
The overhead MACHINE shot in “Take On the Machine” was built at IF first and then re-created, textured and lit at SWAY. The other CG shots in the edit were built at SWAY based on storyboards provided by ATTIK and concept art provided by IF.
SWAY’s team was led by VFX Supervisor Aaron Powell, who brings 20-plus years’ experience helming large-format, stereoscopic and 3D simulation experiences to his position at the studio. The biggest challenge was to develop a highly efficient, cinematic-quality, stereoscopic 3D production pipeline to meet the needs of this massive project’s scope and schedule. Given the amount of 3D content produced for both large-scale ad campaigns, SWAY pulled together the vast CG and stereoscopic experience of its team members to create these leading-edge capabilities and expand the boundaries of possibility for ATTIK and Scion. In addition to all the fully rendered stereoscopic 3D CGI shots, SWAY performed a number of 3D stereoscopic conversions of regular 2D live-action shots.
“This project gave us a phenomenal opportunity to build relationships with ATTIK and IF,” commented SWAY’s Powell. “The sheer volume and scope of the project was daunting, but pulling on the combined experience of our hand-selected team, some of whom have worked on 3D feature films like ‘Benjamin Button’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ we were able to execute the visions of Simon and his colleagues at ATTIK.”
The SWAY team of artists relied on a wide scope of technology including 3D Studio Max, Nuke, FLAME, and After Effects, as well as the company’s proprietary Drive-A-Tron software, which simulates the physics of driving in full 3D, and gives SWAY a significant advantage over other studios which hand-animate vehicle motion.
Credits:
Project: Scion tC
Release/Airdate: Late August/September 2010
Client: Scion
Agency: ATTIK/San Francisco, CA
Executive Creative Director/Director: Simon Needham
Creative Director: Ron Lim
Senior Writer: Mike Brenner
Senior Art Director: Greg Coffin
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Patty Lum
Live-Action Production Company: Blueyed Pictures/Los Angeles
Director: Simon Needham (ATTIK)
Director of Photography: Daniel Ardilley
Executive Producer: Jamee Natella
Design/Production Company: Imaginary Forces/Bicoastal
Art Director: Charles Khoury
Producer: Courtney Graham
Designers: Stephen Fitzgerald, Charles Khoury, Ahmet Ahmet, Jeremy Cox
Animators: Gary Hebert, Dan Meehan
Modelers: Jeffrey Dietrich, Evan Dileo
Editor: Justine Gerenstein
VFX & Animation Company: SWAY/Culver City, CA.
Creative Director: Mark Glaser
Executive Producer: Jason Cohon
VFX Supervisor: Aaron Powell
Producer: Mark Kurtz
Coordinator: Aaron Abt
CG Supervisor: Dan Abrams
CG Supervisor: Tom Connors
Compositing Supervisor: Ken Littleton
Lead Flame Artist: Marguerite Cargill
Tracking Lead: Tim Conway
Lead Previs/ Lead Animator/ Drive-A-Tron Operator: Rob Glazer
Lead Rotoscoping Artist: Elissa Bello
3D Artists: Steve Wang, Cesar Chavez, Josh Hooker, Erik Fernando, Steve Hansen, Tharyn Valavanis, Andrew Swihart, Erick Schiele, Hnedel Maximore, Anthony Han
Compositors: Lawerence Littleton, Scott Hale, Olivier Sarda, Mark Robben
After Effects Compositor: Matt Capocci
Rotoscoping Artists: Billy Robinson, Kenneth Lui
Postproduction Company: Company 3/Santa Monica, CA
Colorist: Clark Muller
Music and Sound Design Company: Face the Music/New York
Executive Producer: Adam Joseph
Composer: Alistair Cooper
Audio Post Company: Lime/Santa Monica, CA
Mixer: Mark Meyhaus
Location Services Company: Means of Production/Vancouver
Executive Producer: David Bouck
About ATTIK:
ATTIK (www.attik.com) is a global creative agency focused on developing integrated advertising, digital and branded experiences. Specifically, the agency’s expertise in strategic planning, design, advertising, production, client service and research has driven extraordinary success across most consumer product and service categories. Articulating corporate brand strategy and designing creative solutions for advertising, below-the-line and online media, ATTIK ensures target audiences are vitally connected to client brands.
About Imaginary Forces:
Imaginary Forces is a leading independent production company with offices in Los Angeles and New York. At the heart and soul of our company is beautiful conceptual design and great ideas that have been solving our client’s creative problems for nearly 15 years. As our name suggests, we are a force of nature, a force of the imagination. There are no limitations to our work, no boundaries. We can wrap our creative way of working around any challenge, and in the process we challenge ourselves, always striving to do the best work and to inspire others.
www.imaginaryforces.com
About SWAY: SWAY creates persuasive, photo-real, computer-generated imagery for ad agencies and other content producers using customized tools and techniques that push the boundaries of possibility, ensuring our clients’ product is leading-edge. www.swaystudio.com
