In the spring of 2011 Eden Robbins was asked to create a challenging image for Guinness and their freshly launched Extra Stout brew. The art director on this project, Simon Newman from Grip, had a vision of a place that didn’t quite exist, except in his head. I codenamed this project “epic” in my mind since it reminded me of imagery and architecture that I associate with Greek epics.

(More info after the jump…)

I realized I would need to build a three dimensional space that we could tweak and adjust until we nailed to concept. Eden photographed architecture samples to start us off. I decided than rather that trying to generate perspective in Adobe Photoshop, After Effects would be my tool of choice in this scenario. I built all of the rough architectural elements on planes and used a 3D camera to get consistent and realistic perspective. Adobe After Effects also allowed me to use 3D lights which gave me a consistent look and helped me to bring all my elements together.

One issue with working with After Effects was image size. For print I will always work with images that are at least 5000px long/wide in the dominant direction. Although After Effects does allow me to do this the performance constrains became quickly apparent. Even working at 1/4 scene resolution on a 12 Core Mac Pro with 18 GB ram was slow going. However strategic use of outline mode made it all possible.

I took a trip to a Zoo with Eden and Simon, armed with a team of assistants and booked a photo session with a Lion and Vulture. We were locked in a cage with the Lion where we set up a green screen to facilitate a better mask process for the fur, however I ended up generating a slightly better looking edge with custom brushes. The Cobra was shot at our studio. Dealing with image elements that have perspective gets very tricky when building a 3D environment based on flat planes.  Once the After Effects process was completed a lot of retouching had to be done to get the shadows in the right places. After Effects lights did provide the architectural shadows and a good guideline where the animal shadows should fall.

This project was at times difficult to visualize with its unusual workflow; however, it was well worth the effort as it allowed us to push photographic boundaries and create an ‘Epic’ image.

I arranged some music using resources available in stock libraries and than timed some transitions, speed ramps and camera zoom/focus effects around the sound. The idea was to have it sound aggressive yet slow to complement the footage. I also added some tempo matched particle effects to some of the shots to add some depth.

The Phantom demmo reel along with artist specific reels was advertised in Lurzers Archive in the spring of 2011 via QR codes. As of the time of this posting chances are our Phantom is not the only in-house Phantom Flex anymore.

The retouching work in an image like this is subtle, it requires great precision and control. It doesn’t change the feel of the image, but helps overcome set limitations and adds that final touch. Work like this cane be just as time consuming as working on stylized images, however working with a clear goal in mind we were able to turn this around very quickly with minimal revisions.

Some words from Todd:

“This collaboration felt very natural with both the car and the agency. The car provided a real rawness to the shoot and required limited use of Photoshop and fake lighting. The Passat is a beautifully designed car and provided me with a real sense of freedom throughout the shoot.

This was my first time shooting for Volkswagen and every car provides its own individual challenges when shooting. When shooting a car, light reflection off the car is key. The Passat’s design handled this nicely. Cars tend to lend themselves to one lighting technique more than others and the Passat worked nicely with a natural feel. The Agency, Red Urban was fantastic; they are a great group of people with a defined vision, making them great to work with.”

Red Urban

Photographer: Todd McLellan
Art Director: Joel Pylypiw

Passanger Side View of the Passat

Todd McLellan Demo Reel from Maciej Roszkowski on Vimeo.

Sugino Studio Directors and Photographers recently updated their portfolios for 2011. I was in charge of editing a few of them. For Todd whose main body of work is Stills based I decided to make the reel itself motion based. We briefly considered doing a physical shoot of a table surface with images but decided against it since it would limit the control of camera moves and image quality.

More info on Finn’s Blog

Ford’s challenge: Create a new interactive project with a Time Freeze effect incorporating motion – within 3 weeks. Our solution: Use 36 Canon DSLRs to shoot a 120-degree sweep around the new Fiesta. Simultaneously shoot 12 motion videos on the same cameras, creating interactive hot-spots that continue the frozen action on demand. We spent 2 days on location in Toronto’s Distillery District shooting 3 scenarios.

I got involved in the early planning stages of this project. The goal was to work out a realistic budget, equipment needs and technical issues that may arise. We decided to use Canon Rebel T2i since they provided a good still image capability and was the lowest cost camera that shot the video quality we required. The equipment is in short supply luckily with the help of Canon and Vistek we were able to get 40 of the cameras on short notice. We used the kit lens that comes with the camera, the cost of 40 additional prime lenses would be prohibitive. Testing started with a small number of cameras to figure out the timing and possible spacing of the cameras that would still allow smooth motion. Over a two week period we worked out the show-stopping issues that could arise and had a working solution. The last part was working out post image stabilization. No matter how much time was spent aligning the cameras there are minute difference is positioning on all axis and occasionally lens barrel expansion due to temperature that changed the FOV. The solution was to build a virtual “suspension” in after effects that absorbed the camera movement and stabilized the footage.

Click the link and then click EXPERIENCE NOW to see the end result.

New Hot Wheels commercial Shin Sugino shot on location in Toronto. I was the Phantom HD Gold slow motion camera operator on set.

I edited together a video of the behind the scenes footage shot over the course of the day. Majority of the spot was shot with the phantom with the exception of the car hood shot which was shot on a RED One.

Footage shot by Shin Sugino over a 6 week period. I decided to experiment a little bit and turned it into a PSA.