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RHINOFX CG WORK FOR NEW NORTHWEST SPOT: |
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| It’s a Chair, It’s a Bed, It’s a Desk – But It’s All CG By Rhinofx. | |
| New York, NY – September 29, 2004 – The days of flying in style had seemingly passed us by, but Northwest airlines is bringing back the creature comforts and conveniences of traveling by plane with an extremely unique seating solution. To advertise their highly versatile recliner/workspace/bed to the upscale frequent-flying business traveler, Northwest advertising agency, Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis, wanted a 30-second spot that would illustrate its many conveniences and still reflect its futuristic vision for air travel. To execute that vision, they sought out the services of New York visual effects studio rhinofx. |  |
Using eye-deceiving, photoreal computer graphics, rhinofx created stunning CG representations of an office, a living room, a dining room and a bedroom. To move from one setting to another, magical transformations take place. Furniture folds and flips into different positions while objects appear and disappear. Quickly but with ease, an office chair and desk become a comfortable looking lounge chair and entertainment center. From there, an inviting dining area unfolds followed by a soothing bedroom scene. So far, only four words are heard from the voiceover, “Work. Play. Dine. Sleep.” With no indication of what the spot is promoting, only the magical special effects keep the audience riveted. Finally, the bedroom scene makes one last transformation – into Northwest Airlines lie-flat business class seat. Gradually, the fuselage and other seats appear in the background and the scene is complete. “Do it all on the only U.S. airline with lie-flat seats. Northwest Airline World Business Class. Now you’re flying smart.” “The spot is meant to make the viewer question his own eyes,” said rhinofx director Arman Matin. “These transformations are designed to appear physically possible and still so simple, so we combined realism with animation to help achieve the desired effect. We set out to show the sustained versatility and comfort of the seat using these elegant transitions. This spot is a fantastic example of how v isual effects are applied to help tell the story, not overwhelm it. However, we knew that making it look easy was not going to be easy.” To achieve the seamless effect, Matin began with two days of live action shooting using a motion-control rig. “Live action was crucial here as I wanted the audience to be guessing what was real and what was CGI,” he explained. “In the end, 90 percent of the spot is CGI but I relied heavily on live action for the look, feel and texture of all the furniture.” After the acquisition was complete, the rhinofx team used a combination of photographic referencing, computer-generated animation, global illumination lighting software and—never used in commercials before— “Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function” or BDRF. BDRF is used to achieve the most accurate and complete representation of materials’ texture and reactions to light. Swatches of many of the materials (i.e. leather, aluminum, molded plastic) used in the scene are scanned with million dollar “Reflectometers” for the most accurate digital representation of their make-up. “It would be a mistake to use CGI only for creating cuddly forest animals,” said Wagonheim. “One of CGI’s best applications is creating this kind of hyper-realism to support an overall concept. In this spot for Northwest Airlines, the special effects are used to create a metaphor that simply could not have been done a few years ago.” ABOUT THE RHINOCEROS rhinofx (formerly Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design) is located at www.rhinofx.tv and 50 East 42 nd Street, New York, NY (212) 986-1577. Quick time & frames are available at: http://www.rhinofx.com/quicktimes/new/nwa.mov # # # Press Contact: Fran Koenig (203) 661 5090, koenigpr@optonline.net Credits for: "Transformations" Production Company: rhinofx, New York, NY Director: Arman Matin Executive Producers: Rick Wagonheim & Camille Geier Live Action Line Producer: Terry McGinnis Live Action Production Manager: Kristen Ames Where Shot: Ceco Int'l, New York, NY Advertising Agency: Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis, MN Creative Director: Jim Nelson Executive Producer: Jack Steinmann Copywriter: Brian Tierney Art Director: Brock Davis Visual Effects: rhinofx, New York, NY Director: Arman Matin Executive Producers: Rick Wagonheim & Camille Geier CG Director: Natasha Saenko Senior Animator: Jeff Guerrero Lead Artist: Joe Burrascano Visual Effects Supervisor: Josh Frankel CG Modeler: Paul Liaw Lighting Artist: Ido Klair Technical Director: Jesse Clemens Animator: Dan Vislocky Producer: Yfat Neev Sound Design: Echo Boys, Inc., Minneapolis, MN Sound Designer: Tom Lecher Audio Engineer / Mixer: Bethany Lacktorin Composer: Alex Berglund Producer: Kathy Yanko Color: Company 3 Colorist: Eli Friedman |
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