Paris-based post production company Sabotage Studio throws some impressive moves in the latest spots for Samsung
Limitless creativity is the tag line in this new spot for Samsung’s Chronos laptop model
French post production company Sabotage Studio was responsible for the dancing environments in the latest spots for Samsung’s Chronos laptop and Slate PC. The brief came about from the company NoBrain – a team of three directors who were responsible for creating Sabotage back in 2001 but relinquished control of the studio after wanting to pursue personal projects. However, the directors still work closely with Sabotage and got the team heavily involved with the post-production process of the Samsung spots.
Sabotage 3D and VFX supervisor Beve Stephane explains, “We started with pre-production meetings, to anticipate possible issues and which visual FX to do, as well as gathering all the delivery specs. We then moved on to the set modelling, 3D camera positions, animation, the dancers’ roto, colour correction, and client presentations.”
To create the intricate VFX, the team used a 3ds Max and Vray pipeline, along with Thinking Particles 3, Photoshop for texturing and Nuke for compositing. The combination of the various software tools and the patient, talented artists using them ensured the team achieved their goal. “We hardly ever use plug-ins for 3ds Max, except Thinking Particles, and all the animations were completed by hand,” says Stephane. “The project had a really tight deadline so we had to figure out quick and simple tricks, and, after some days of testing, we preferred manual work as it proved to be way more flexible.”
The team also managed to tackle the complicated task of compositing without using any third-party add-ons. Stephane comments, “In this kind of 3D and live-action project, where 3D objects replace real objects in the original plate, the tricky part is in the lighting and compositing department. For example, creating reflections on buildings made of glass. But it worked out really well even without the help of any plug-ins even though I admit that sometimes they help.”
Watch the Samsung PC Slate spot
Check out more work from Sabotage at its website
Posted on Tuesday, December 6th, 2011 at 4:02 pm under Commercial, Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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