Tag: visual effects

Ed Scissortongue - 'Theremin'

This is the video for the title track of Ed Scissortongue’s ‘Theremin’ E.P. I shot Mr Scissortongue on green screen with a Canon 7D. This was then given a blue and yellow grade to match the E.P. artwork. The background animations were created in a variety of ways. Some were hand drawn frame by frame. Others (like the crucifixes that turn into B52 bombers) were animated at 12fps out of simple 3D geometries and then a pencil effect applied in Flame. Others are simple 2D animations done in Flame. Film dirt, negative and scratchy textures were then added on top.

Post Production Company: Rushes
Director, Camera, Editor, Animator, Compositor: Leo Weston

Honda - 'Disruption' (Director's Version)

This is the teaser film for the Honda Type R, directed by Kirby McClure of Radical friend. This is the director’s version with no music, only SFX. You can watch the original version here, should you desire. VFX work on this spot was extensive. Including: Multiple matte paintings of skyscraper skylines, Sky replacements, Lightning effects, Eye glow effects for the cat and wolves, Creation & comping of metal android eyes, Comping of CG neon onto buildings, CG rain, CG crystal model particle explosion, Digital breakup ‘Data Mosh’ effect, Cleanup & Rig removal. We also created an end shot of the car rotating out of only 3 stills as the car didn’t yet exist at the time of shooting.

Agency: Karmarama
Producer: Jenny O’Connell
Creatives: Rachel Holding, Daniel Leppänen
Director: Kirby McClure / Radical Friend
Production Company: Kream
Exec Producer: Eddie Marshall
Creative Partner: Jon Harvey
Producer: Mikey Levelle
DoP: Matt Fox
Editor: Ellie Johnson @ Speade
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX Supervisor: Leo Weston
VFX: Leo Weston , Matt Jackson, James Dooley, Mark Ford
CG: Andy Nicholas, Craig Travis, David Drese, Nimesh Patel, Mark Woodcock, Andrea Scibetta
MGFX: Matt Lawrence, Guy Hancock,
Barry Corcoran, Fraser Macedo
Nuke: Noel Harmes, Sarah Breakwell
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
Exec Producer: Kristy May Currie
Producer: Simon Sanderson

Honda - 'Disruption' (Agency Version)

This is the teaser film for the Honda Type R, directed by Kirby McClure of Radical friend. VFX work on this spot was extensive. Including: Multiple matte paintings of skyscraper skylines, Sky replacements, Lightning effects, Eye glow effects for the cat and wolves, Creation & comping of metal android eyes, Comping of CG neon onto buildings, CG rain, CG crystal model particle explosion, Digital breakup ‘Data Mosh’ effect, Cleanup & Rig removal. We also created an end shot of the car rotating out of only 3 stills as the car didn’t yet exist at the time of shooting.

Agency: Karmarama
Producer: Jenny O’Connell
Creatives: Rachel Holding, Daniel Leppänen
Director: Kirby McClure / Radical Friend
Production Company: Kream
Exec Producer: Eddie Marshall
Creative Partner: Jon Harvey
Producer: Mikey Levelle
DoP: Matt Fox
Editor: Ellie Johnson @ Speade
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX Supervisor: Leo Weston
VFX: Leo Weston , Matt Jackson, James Dooley, Mark Ford
CG: Andy Nicholas, Craig Travis, David Drese, Nimesh Patel, Mark Woodcock, Andrea Scibetta
MGFX: Matt Lawrence, Guy Hancock,
Barry Corcoran, Fraser Macedo
Nuke: Noel Harmes, Sarah Breakwell
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
Exec Producer: Kristy May Currie
Producer: Simon Sanderson

'Rose' - Short Film

These are 2 of the FX shots that I completed for a short film written and directed by Tom Stoddart about a young girl with ‘pyrokinesis’. I added fire from elements that we shot on a Canon 7D to background plates shot on Arri Alexa. Smoke was created in Maya and composited in Flame. ‘Rose’ was funded through the London Calling scheme by Film London. It won the Best Cinematography award from Film London and was the winner of the Panalux Prize 2014. You can watch the full film here: ‘Rose’ by Tom Stoddart

Director: Tom Stoddart
Producer: Harry Burnett Rae
Production Company: Irresistible Films
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX Supervisor & Compositing: Leo Weston
Houdini & Maya: Andrea Scibetta

ASDA - 'Tweets' VFX Breakdown

A VFX breakdown for Asda’s Easter campaign “Tweets”. This was done entirely in Flame by myself and Matt Jackson (at Rushes Post Production). The little chicks were placed on strips of cardboard and gently moved around to seem like they are dancing. There was no CGI, no puppets, no robots and no glue used in the making of this commercial.

Product: Asda
Agency: VCCP
Producer: Sally Miller
Creatives: Jermaine Hillman, Paul Kocur
Creative Director: Janetta Lewin, Mark Orbine
Production Company: Stink
Director: Christian Bevilacqua
Producer: Malachy McAnenny
Editor: Al Sinclair
Post Production Company: Rushes
Exec Producer: Kristy May Currie
Producer: Mireille Antoine
VFX: Leo Weston , Matt Jackson
Colourist: Simone Grattarola

ASDA - 'Tweets'

A dancing chick. What could possibly be more cute? This is Asda’s brand ad for their 2014 Easter campaign. Director Christian Bevilacqua didn’t want this to be another CG dancing animal advert so we created this spot using real baby chicks. The little chicks were placed on strips of cardboard and gently moved around to seem like they were dancing. The cardboard rig was then removed in Flame by reconstructing the floors and walls that they obscured. This required camera tracking the shot environment and re-projecting painted clean backgrounds. The chicks were then rotoscoped back over the cleaned up set. We also reconstructed parts of the chick’s legs that had been obscured by the cardboard rig. Shadows of the dancing chicks were then recreated and projected back onto the reconstructed environment. There was no CGI, no puppets, no robots and no glue used in the making of this commercial. Although the chicks were unharmed during the making of the ad, somebody did tell me that they were fed to a snake after filming. Maybe they were joking. You can see a breakdown of the VFX work on this page here.

Product: Asda
Agency: VCCP
Producer: Sally Miller
Creatives: Jermaine Hillman, Paul Kocur
Creative Director: Janetta Lewin, Mark Orbine
Production Company: Stink
Director: Christian Bevilacqua
Producer: Malachy McAnenny
Editor: Al Sinclair
Post Production Company: Rushes
Exec Producer: Kristy May Currie
Producer: Mireille Antoine
VFX: Leo Weston , Matt Jackson
Colourist: Simone Grattarola

Foxes - 'Holding onto Heaven'

Foxes turns the world upside-down with some help from a Milo Motion control rig, lots of maths and a load of Flame time. I previssed these VFX shots in Flame first alongside director Henry Schofield to work out what was possible on the Milo. We then matched the moves on set. The same scene was shot twice on set with green screen from head height upwards. The moves were then flipped on the rig and shot again on the same floor. We flipped one of them upside-down again in Flame and joined the 2 plates together. Then smoothed over the joins and removed the tracks for the rig. I think the 4 effects shots work really well. This video is of the Director’s edit.

Production Company: Cavia
Director: Henry Scolfield
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX Supervisor: Leo Weston
VFX: Leo Weston & Johnny Hicks
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
Motion Control: The VFX Company

BASF - 'Working for Water' VFX Breakdown

A breakdown of the VFX work done on BASF’s “Working for Water” film. I went to South Africa to supervise this shoot. Ideally for a crowd replication shot made up of multiple moving plates, you’d normally want a motion control rig, but in the South African mountains that’s just not going to happen, so we made do with a crane with laser pen attached, pointing at a plank of wood with chalk marks drawn on, and a man with a stopwatch counting aloud. I made sure that the crane operator hit one chalk mark each second and that the front and back positions of the line of people was consistent between each plate. Due to the scale of the scene, the perspective on the mid to far away plates doesn’t change too much over the duration so any slight discrepancy between the different plates was fixable with stabalisation. The main composite was put together in Flame back at Rushes by Matt Jackson.

Agency: M & C Saatchi
Producer:  Mary Fostiropoulos
Creative Director:  Simon Dicketts
Production Company: Sweet Spot Content
Director:  Miles Goodsall
Producer:  Linda Notelovitz
Post Production Company: Rushes
Producer:  Carl Grinter
Colourist:  Simona Harrison
VFX:  Matt Jackson, Leo Weston
Nuke:  Noel Harmes, Sarah Breakwell

ASDA - 'Wine'

One of many ads completed at Rushes for Asda, Christmas 2013. This one features 3 variations of one technique to pull off the 3 transitions between the 3 locations. The transitions were shot twice (once in each environment) using a steadicam rig. Mix and overlay was essential on set to get the timings of each handover as perfectly matched as possible. In Flame, each plate was stabalised, aligned, and then elements were individually morphed and combined with background wipes to complete the feeling of moving seamlessly from house to house.

Agency: VCCP
Production Company: Park Village
Director: Alan Friel
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX: Leo Weston

Breach - 'Everything You Never Had'

This was all shot in a black studio on motion control with only 2 dancers. We combined the moco passes. Some keying, rotoscoping. Then tracking in a halo on the angel. It was loads of work and for a very small budget but I wanted to take it on cause I liked the track.

Production Company: Riff Raff
Director: The Sacred Egg
Post Production Company: Rushes
VFX: Leo Weston