--Digital Production Studio Showcases Expertise in Complex Mechanical
Imagery for Audi A4 2.0 TDI e--
Venice, CA‹September 11, 2009‹Digital Domain has teamed up with longtime
collaborator Carl Erik Rinsch and his German production company Markenfilm
on a :45 TV commercial for Audi, via Hamburg, Germany-based ad agency
Kempertrautmann. The digital production studio designed a highly complex --
yet ethereally beautiful -- visual device that represents Audi's new
tagline, "Efficient-Technology, intelligently combined." The spot titled
"Intelligently Combined" showcases the Audi A4 2.0 TDI e and first aired
Sept. 4th 2009 in Spain and will roll out across Europe.
"Intelligently Combined" opens on a minimalist museum space. Hanging in the
middle of the spacious room is a clear glass cube divided into multiple
sections like a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Various automobile parts are encased
within the sections, which begin to rotate and shift, releasing pistons,
gears, bolts and other parts from their compartments. They drop and fall
into place with other Audi parts, joining together to form the fully
realized Audi A4 2.0 TDI e featured at the end of the spot ‹ the only
live-action portion of the otherwise entirely CG commercial.
Directors and agencies have long tapped Digital Domain for its expertise in
modeling and animating highly complex, detailed and photo-real mechanical
imagery. However the team -- led by Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Barton --
still faced the creative challenge of designing and orchestrating the
complicated movements of the cube, which had to build an Audi piece by
piece as the puzzle was "solved."
Imagery for Audi A4 2.0 TDI e--
Venice, CA‹September 11, 2009‹Digital Domain has teamed up with longtime
collaborator Carl Erik Rinsch and his German production company Markenfilm
on a :45 TV commercial for Audi, via Hamburg, Germany-based ad agency
Kempertrautmann. The digital production studio designed a highly complex --
yet ethereally beautiful -- visual device that represents Audi's new
tagline, "Efficient-Technology, intelligently combined." The spot titled
"Intelligently Combined" showcases the Audi A4 2.0 TDI e and first aired
Sept. 4th 2009 in Spain and will roll out across Europe.
"Intelligently Combined" opens on a minimalist museum space. Hanging in the
middle of the spacious room is a clear glass cube divided into multiple
sections like a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Various automobile parts are encased
within the sections, which begin to rotate and shift, releasing pistons,
gears, bolts and other parts from their compartments. They drop and fall
into place with other Audi parts, joining together to form the fully
realized Audi A4 2.0 TDI e featured at the end of the spot ‹ the only
live-action portion of the otherwise entirely CG commercial.
Directors and agencies have long tapped Digital Domain for its expertise in
modeling and animating highly complex, detailed and photo-real mechanical
imagery. However the team -- led by Visual Effects Supervisor Jay Barton --
still faced the creative challenge of designing and orchestrating the
complicated movements of the cube, which had to build an Audi piece by
piece as the puzzle was "solved."
"The original creative brief was that the entire car would be diced up as
if it had been put through a giant bread slicer," said Barton. "As the cube
solved we would see the jumbled car sections become more and more
recognizable until the entire car was formed. In discussions with Carl, it
was decided to not cut the car up in an unnatural way but rather to
assemble it from real individual car parts as realistically as possible.
This meant that instead of lining up car parts next to each other and
having an entire car magically become whole, we needed to design a delivery
system to move parts and subsections from cube to cube. Having everything
based on gravity and inertia allowed us to facilitate parts joining by
dropping or sliding together which led to entire systems coming together
such as engine and transmission."
Digital Domain paid extra attention to ensure the parts would fit together
as seamlessly and logically as they would in real life, despite the fact
that the futuristic Rubik's Cube was grounded more in fantasy than reality.
"We had a few discussions with the engineers at Audi regarding how
everything would fit together," continued Barton. "The further we went
along in our animation tests, the build process became guided by the actual
construction sequence as it happens at the Audi factory. Our team met with
two factory-trained technicians from Audi who broke down a full engine,
transmission and headlight assembly for us, laying everything out on a
table so we could ask questions and take reference photographs."
Barton and his team also did extensive look development, trying out 10
different room environments and lighting scenarios before deciding upon a
look that felt accurately majestic and grand, as if the space was built
specifically to show off this event. It was also important that the room be
strong enough structurally to hold up the cube, its cables and the control
mechanisms that make the whole "kinetic installation art piece" work.
Barton oversaw a team of eight 3D artists, four compositors, two
rotoscoping artists and two motion trackers over the course of eight weeks.
The collaboration with director Carl Erik Rinsch is just the latest in a
slate of recent commercial work, which also includes spots for Lincoln,
Lexus, LG and Mazda.
About Digital Domain
Digital Domain is an Academy Award-winning digital production studio with a
reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual
effects for 75+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12
billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual
Effects. A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a
stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek,
Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for
Digital Domain's advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion
awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into
new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real
digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games,
advertising and the web closer together. Digital Domain is privately held
and based in Venice, California. www.digitaldomain.com
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
CLIENT: Audi AG
PRODUCT: "Intelligently Combined"
ADVERTISING AGENCY: kempertrautmann GmbH
Creative Direction: Gerrit Zinke, Jens Theil, Florian Weber, Tobias Ahrens,
Sönke Busch
Art Direction: Florian Schimmer, Simon Jasper Philipp
Agency Producer: Ruth Jansen
Strategic Planner: Nils Wollny
Account Managers: Andrea Bison, Niklas Kruchten
Team Assistant: Jan Rütten
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Markenfilm GmbH &Co. KG
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Director or Photography: Martin Ruhe
Head of Production: Katie Stiebel
Assistant Producer: Ruth Perk
Production Manager: Christopher Manz
ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc.
President of Commercials, Executive Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jay Barton
Visual Effects Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
CG Supervisor: Ronald D. Herbst
Visual Effects Coordinator: Stephanie Escobar
Sr. Flame Artist: David Stern
Flame Artist: Matthew J.D. Bramante
Editor: Russ Glasgow
Previs: David Rosenbaum
Animators: Simon Dunsdon, Adrian Dimond
Digital Artists: Tim Jones, Chris Norpchen, David Liu, Masa Narita
Sr. Compositor: Rafael F. Colón
Nuke Compositors: Jacqueline Cooper, Sven Dreesbach
Roto Artists: Hilery Johnson Copeland, Karin Last
Integration Tracker: Peter Herlein
MUSIC HOUSE: AUDIOFORCE Thomas Suess KG
Composer: Thomas Süss
AUDIO POST/MIX HOUSE: NHB
Mixers: Wenke Kleine - Benne, Stefan Lügger
# # #
if it had been put through a giant bread slicer," said Barton. "As the cube
solved we would see the jumbled car sections become more and more
recognizable until the entire car was formed. In discussions with Carl, it
was decided to not cut the car up in an unnatural way but rather to
assemble it from real individual car parts as realistically as possible.
This meant that instead of lining up car parts next to each other and
having an entire car magically become whole, we needed to design a delivery
system to move parts and subsections from cube to cube. Having everything
based on gravity and inertia allowed us to facilitate parts joining by
dropping or sliding together which led to entire systems coming together
such as engine and transmission."
Digital Domain paid extra attention to ensure the parts would fit together
as seamlessly and logically as they would in real life, despite the fact
that the futuristic Rubik's Cube was grounded more in fantasy than reality.
"We had a few discussions with the engineers at Audi regarding how
everything would fit together," continued Barton. "The further we went
along in our animation tests, the build process became guided by the actual
construction sequence as it happens at the Audi factory. Our team met with
two factory-trained technicians from Audi who broke down a full engine,
transmission and headlight assembly for us, laying everything out on a
table so we could ask questions and take reference photographs."
Barton and his team also did extensive look development, trying out 10
different room environments and lighting scenarios before deciding upon a
look that felt accurately majestic and grand, as if the space was built
specifically to show off this event. It was also important that the room be
strong enough structurally to hold up the cube, its cables and the control
mechanisms that make the whole "kinetic installation art piece" work.
Barton oversaw a team of eight 3D artists, four compositors, two
rotoscoping artists and two motion trackers over the course of eight weeks.
The collaboration with director Carl Erik Rinsch is just the latest in a
slate of recent commercial work, which also includes spots for Lincoln,
Lexus, LG and Mazda.
About Digital Domain
Digital Domain is an Academy Award-winning digital production studio with a
reputation for innovation and artistry. The studio has created visual
effects for 75+ movies that have collectively generated more than $12
billion in worldwide box-office sales, including most recently, The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button for which it won the Academy Award for Visual
Effects. A creative giant in advertising, Digital Domain works with a
stellar group of A-list directors including David Fincher, Mark Romanek,
Joseph Kosinski, Carl Erik Rinsch and more. Industry recognition for
Digital Domain's advertising work includes many Clio, AICP, and Cannes Lion
awards and other industry honors. The company is continually pushing into
new territory and is being recognized for its pioneering work in photo-real
digital humans and productions that bring the worlds of movies, games,
advertising and the web closer together. Digital Domain is privately held
and based in Venice, California. www.digitaldomain.com
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
CLIENT: Audi AG
PRODUCT: "Intelligently Combined"
ADVERTISING AGENCY: kempertrautmann GmbH
Creative Direction: Gerrit Zinke, Jens Theil, Florian Weber, Tobias Ahrens,
Sönke Busch
Art Direction: Florian Schimmer, Simon Jasper Philipp
Agency Producer: Ruth Jansen
Strategic Planner: Nils Wollny
Account Managers: Andrea Bison, Niklas Kruchten
Team Assistant: Jan Rütten
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Markenfilm GmbH &Co. KG
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Director or Photography: Martin Ruhe
Head of Production: Katie Stiebel
Assistant Producer: Ruth Perk
Production Manager: Christopher Manz
ANIMATION & VISUAL EFFECTS: Digital Domain, Inc.
President of Commercials, Executive Producer: Ed Ulbrich
Executive Producer / Head of Production: Karen Anderson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jay Barton
Visual Effects Producer: Chris Fieldhouse
CG Supervisor: Ronald D. Herbst
Visual Effects Coordinator: Stephanie Escobar
Sr. Flame Artist: David Stern
Flame Artist: Matthew J.D. Bramante
Editor: Russ Glasgow
Previs: David Rosenbaum
Animators: Simon Dunsdon, Adrian Dimond
Digital Artists: Tim Jones, Chris Norpchen, David Liu, Masa Narita
Sr. Compositor: Rafael F. Colón
Nuke Compositors: Jacqueline Cooper, Sven Dreesbach
Roto Artists: Hilery Johnson Copeland, Karin Last
Integration Tracker: Peter Herlein
MUSIC HOUSE: AUDIOFORCE Thomas Suess KG
Composer: Thomas Süss
AUDIO POST/MIX HOUSE: NHB
Mixers: Wenke Kleine - Benne, Stefan Lügger
# # #
