With A Twist Creates A-maze-ing Cg Fx For Buick

[Stryker]

WITH A TWIST CREATES A-MAZE-ING CG FX FOR BUICK
Studio Teams with Untitled and Nerve Films for Spot Touting On Star System

VENICE, CA—With A Twist Studio provided the CG magic for a new Buick spot in which a Lucerne uses its On-Star navigation system to find its way out of a giant maze. With A Twist, which has studios in Detroit and Los Angeles, provided previsualization, on-set visual effects supervision, computer animation and visual effects production services for the spot.

Conceived by McCann-Erickson, Detroit, the spot follows a woman as she drives her Buick Lucerne between towering rows of neatly trimmed hedges arranged into a maze. The woman switches on the car’s On-Star system—now standard on all Buicks—which guides her through the twists and turns and out of the labyrinth. “Just tell us where you want to go,” concludes the voiceover, “and we’ll take you there.”

With A Twist became involved in the project during pre-production, creating a computer-animated previsualization of the spot to aid in designing the maze and in planning shot selection. “We worked very closely with the production team’s art department,” recalled With A Twist visual effects supervisor David Burton. “They built 500 square feet of the maze, but it needed to appear much larger. We used previs as a planning tool so that the maze could be reconfigured as little as possible and so that they could get the most out of each shot.”

“We also used the previs as a tool to help the directors, Tim and Jeff Cronenweth, in designing framing and camera movement for individual shots—and to plan the set ups for each day,” Burton added.
“We like to get involved in projects during pre-production and in this case, it really paid off,” said With A Twist executive producer Pam Hammarlund. “We were able to help the agency and the production company come up with a plan for executing the spot that saved time and money, and avoided problems that might otherwise have appeared during post production.”

Burton attended the shoot as on-set visual effects supervisor. He and his crew took measurements and high resolution photographs of set pieces and foliage to aid in creating digital set extensions. “We wrote a tool in Houdini to build the maze pieces that had the ability to vary the shape and density of the leaves on a random basis,” Burton said. “We then exported that data to our 3D Studio Max pipeline for final color and lighting. The floor was rendered in multiple passes to create a burnished look that matched the live action footage. We also sprinkled some leave on the ground to keep things from looking too perfect.”

In order to have better control over the lighting at the location site, the production crew hung a giant silk canvas over the top of the maze set. In post production, the silk had to be replaced with sky elements. Additionally, the rigging used to support the silk was reflected in the exterior of the car and that, too, had to be removed. Sky replacements and rig removal were factors in virtually every shot.

While they were on the set, With A Twist’s crew placed tracking marks on the car and set pieces so that replacement elements could be easily tracked, in 2D or 3D, to the backgrounds and camera movement. In addition, With A Twist artists produced a volume of “car caps,” CG elements exactly replicating the vehicle’s sheet metal and glass components—but without the unwanted reflections. Nerve Films composited and tracked the car caps to the appropriate parts of the car to give it a gleaming, unblemished look.
“Car caps are a great alternative to using paint tools to remove reflections,” said Burton. “Elements can be used as often as necessary and tracked to the car.” Car caps were also used to replace such components of as wheels and grilles, Burton noted.

With A Twist’s CG team created a few extreme wide shots as full CG. That included the spot’s penultimate shot, which shows the maze extending to the horizon. “The maze appears to be at least two miles wide,” Burton said.
CG work on the project was divided between With A Twist’s Los Angeles and Detroit studios. Having two studios was a plus for the project, Hammarlund noted, as it allowed the team to maintain close contact with the agency, directors and other crew while the production was ongoing in Los Angeles and Detroit.

With A Twist worked on Maze with many of the same artists, including Nerve Films and directors Jeff and Tim Cronenweth, with whom it earlier teamed for a Chevrolet spot called Popcorn. That spot, in which full-sized vehicles form out of kernels of popcorn, required a similarly tight collaboration between the production, visual effects and CG artists. “We’ve developed good rapport and trust,” Burton observed, “and it’s evident in the quality of the results and how quickly we were able to achieve them.”
With A Twist Studio has locations at 1713 Lincoln Boulevard, Venice, California 90291 (310)210-4802, and 1773 Star Batt Drive, Rochester Hills, Michigan 48309. For more information, call (248) 844-0044 or visit www.withatwiststudio.com.


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For additional information, contact:
Linda Rosner
Artisans Public Relations
(310) 837-6008
lrosner@artisanspr.com


Product: 2007 Buick Lucerne
Title: Maze
Length: 30-seconds
Agency: McCann-Erickson, Detroit.
Production: Untitled Films. Jeff and Tim Cronenweth, Directors.
Compositing/Finishing: Nerve Films. Ash Beck, VFX Producer.
CG: With A Twist Studio, Detroit and Los Angeles. David Burton, VFX Supervisor; Pam Hammarlund, Executive Producer/VFX Producer; Garman Herigstad, Hedge Lead; Brandon Bartlett, Matt Hammarlund, Paul LaFond, Matt Nowacki, Ryan Romans and Frank Synowicz, CG Artists; Bailey McFarlen, Render Wrangler.
Telecine: Company 3.
Editorial: Beast. Igor Kovalik, editor.