Putting HD on the Spot

In “Reflexes,” a Honda Fit is suspended upside-down above the ground then dropped. Viewers are then surprised to find that it has “cat-like reflexes” which enable it to land gracefully on its wheels and drive away. And in “Food Chain,” the classic images of a big fish eating a smaller fish are updated in a futuristic city in which one car literally eats a smaller car. The surviving car is then overtaken from behind and eaten by an SUV, which is then eaten by a Honda Fit.

To accomplish this caliber of effects with the utmost visual integrity, A52 has invested in a powerful infrastructure capable of handling the rigors of HD work extremely efficiently.

A52’s HD pipeline is comprised of many Autodesk® systems including Flame® and Inferno® visual effects compositing software; Smoke® nonlinear editing and finishing system; Maya® 3D animation software; as well as the Autodesk® Burn™ background renderer; Stone® high-performance storage systems; and Wire® high-speed networking software.

Both Honda Fit spots featured CG vehicles created in Maya that were composited with 2D digital backgrounds and enhanced by sophisticated tracking, reflections, and color correction using Flame.

“Creatives at the top agencies are very savvy, and they know that to meet their creative and technical expectations, you have to have Flame, Inferno, or Smoke,” says Kirk Balden, A52’s Flame artist.

“Since we have a proven track record and a powerful arsenal of Autodesk systems, our agency clients know we can achieve any visual effect they might dream up,” says Balden. “To get on the same page creatively, there is a certain level of experimentation and exploration that has to take place while agency creatives are sitting with us in the suite. Burn plays a big part in facilitating this creative exploration because it relegates the time-consuming rendering of HD images to a background process so that we and our clients can continue working without delay.”

In today’s budget-conscious, competitive environment, having a digital pipeline driven by Autodesk technology means being able to work extremely quickly and efficiently without compromising quality. “Because these tools are so powerful, and packed with unlimited creative and technical capabilities, we have the means to tackle any aspect of their HD spot under one roof very cost-effectively,” says A52’s managing director and executive producer, Mark Tobin.

A52 used Smoke to assemble 60-second, 30-second, and 15-second versions of “Imagine Cup” and “Startup,” with Flame used for compositing. The Microsoft spots show live action scenes of people busily working at computers and using Microsoft® technology to be creative and productive. The running theme throughout the ads is a 2D white line that animates over the scenes to represent the people’s imaginations coming to life.

“We had to modify the back plates to accentuate the 2D white lines—by replacing the skies or removing highlights from the background—to make the white lines bolder so they’d really stand out,” says Balden. “Using Flame tracking tools, we did tons of monitor replacement as well as extensive color correction.”

While 98-percent of A52’s workload is oriented to high-end commercials, 30-to-40 percent of that volume is post produced and mastered in HD. And Tobin says that trend is growing.

While last year A52 saw a lot of HD commercials being produced for high-profile special events like the Super Bowl, this year more “regular” advertising campaigns have also since shifted to HD.

“The HD process does take longer and the razor sharp resolution is challenging, which allows the talents of our artists to shine through with new levels of credibility and realism,” says Tobin. “Everyone here is a part of the fulfillment of the HD promise, and we want it to be as easy as possible for our clients to migrate to HD, to give them access to all the benefits for versioning for multi-format distribution, and to make their finished products as impressive as possible.”

For more information on A52, please visit: www.a52.com