Massive Software announced that Method
Studios has tapped into the company's artificial intelligence-based 3D
animation system to bring a new ad for Budweiser to life. Creative
treatment for Anheuser-Busch's "The Wave," which debuted during Super Bowl
XL, centers on messages being spelled out on a sea of cards held by an arena
crowd, which was created using some 97,000 virtual Massive characters.
Seen from above, one side of the stadium builds the picture of a Budweiser
bottle while the other side forms an empty glass. By doing the 'wave,' they
'pour' the beer into the glass and then 'drink' it back down to empty.
"We wouldn't have tackled this job without Massive," said Andrew Bell,
technical director, Method Studios. "It would have been difficult to do
using traditional techniques."
Only 300 extras were filmed on set during a two-day shoot; the rest of the
fans were produced in 3D. By modifying Massive's Ready-to-Run Stadium
Agent, Method used Massive's flagship Massive Prime software to place a
digital character underneath each card that would behave with all the
randomness and realism of a real individual in a stadium scenario.
"Massive's Stadium Agent had everything we needed,² said James Le Bloch, 3D
Artist, Method. "Randomness in the stock agent movement helped sell the work
as a live crowd because we already had an agent that acted as a live crowd
member would. It also gave us a lot of flexibility with the angles on our
crowd shots."
Other benefits of using Massive included the ability to add believable
characters, such as spectators and football players on the stadium field, at
the last minute without practical elements or new shoots. Use of Massive
also allowed Method to take on a project of a large scale and complete the
work with only a handful of artists.
"Massive is a very helpful tool and, with the way schedules and budgets are
going, Massive capabilities are definitely an advantage," said Kim
Wildenburg, Producer, Method Studios.
Added Laurent Ledru, Lead 3D Creative Director, Method, "Now that we are
versed in full crowd production, our next goals will be to integrate other
pre-made Massive agents, build some agents of our own and put our Massive
characters closer to camera."
Massive Ready-to-Run Agents make populating a large scene with Massive
easily accessible to visual effects artists, and let animators complete
complicated crowd shots in less time. Each Ready-to-Run Agent is immediately
available, pre-built with skeletons, geometry, cloth, textures, shaders and
controls, as well as high-quality motion capture actions. With Massive's
Stadium Agent, customers can drop in characters that sit, stand, cheer,
operate based on different levels of excitement and even have ambient
movement, such as scratching, brushing one¹s hair and coughing when sitting
or standing.
The Massive product line includes Massive Prime for building custom agents
or modifying Ready-To-Run Agents and Massive Jet for easy, out-of-the-box
workflow with Ready-to-Run Agents. Rushes Post Production Limited recently
used Massive Jet for a fast-turnaround project that required thousands of
stadium-goers.
Explained Andy Hargreaves, Senior Animator at Rushes: "Massive Jet complete
with the Massive Stadium Agent has proved an invaluable tool throughout
production. Within a couple of weeks I had created thousands of fans with
their own unique wardrobe and begun to control their behavior and reactions.
Without Massive Jet this simply would not have been possible."
Agency: DDB Chicago
Creative Director: Barry Burdiak & John Hayes
Exec. Creative Director: Steve Bougdanos & Patrick Knoll
Agency Producer: Kent Smith
Production Company: H.S.I.
Executive Producer: Ellen Jacobsen Clarke
Producer: Tim Kerrison
Director: Paul Middleditch
Director of Photography: Ross Emery
Editorial Company: Chrome
Editor: Hal Honisberg
Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Mike Pethal
Motion Control: Camera Control
Visual Effects: Method Studios
Lead 2D VFX Artist: Mark Felt
CG Creative Director: Laurent Ledru
3D VFX Artist: James LeBloch, Dan Dixon, Chris Smallfield, Todd Perry, Chi-Wei Hsu
Junior 2D VFX Artist: Kyle Obley
VFX Shoot Supervision: Kim Wildenburg & Laurent Ledru
Technical Director: Andrew Bell
Visual Effects Executive Producer: Neysa Horsburgh
Visual Effects Producer: Kim Wildenburg
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