Brickyard VFX has completed of a new :30 second spot for Hummer's H2 via ad agency Modernista, Boston. The spot boldly goes where no Hummer has gone before, playing off of iconic STAR TREK music and visual cues.
Accompanied by the universally recognized STAR TREK theme, "Go Boldly" opens as the camera seemingly journeys through what appears to be a star-filled galaxy. As the stars streak past, the camera pulls back to reveal that they're actually snowflakes coming toward the windshield of an H2 hurtling through a snowstorm. A slow pullback shot showcases the Hummer's front interior and dashboard, transitioning to exterior views of the vehicle. As the spot closes, the Hummer tagline urges the viewer to "Boldly Go" as a bird's eye view of the H2 shows it shooting off into warp speed a la The Starship Enterprise.
The entire front end of the spot was created in 3D, with the Brickyard VFX CG team building snow using particle systems in Autodesk Maya. The interior H2 shots were shot on bluescreen in a studio; the windshield snow and wipers were built in CG and composited with all the separate interior plates into the scenes by Brickyard's Geoff McAuliffe. Additional CG snow enhances the exterior shots. The final shot, featuring CG snow swirls, the hyperspace effect and title treatment were all completed in Autodesk Flame.
"This spot was a lot of fun to work on, and thanks to Geoff's great relationship with director Nick Lewin, we were entrusted to devise a solution to add in CG snow. The agency's main concern was that we would be able to pull off natural looking snow in CG that still possessed all of the irregularities of a real blizzard," explained Brickyard VFX producer Kirsten Andersen. "Being that we're based here in Boston, it wasn't difficult to draw references!"
Brickyard VFX credits include:VFX Artists: Geoff McAuliffe, Jimi SimmonsCG Artists: Robert Sethi, Yafei WuProducer: Kirsten Andersen
Located in Boston and Santa Monica, Brickyard VFX (www.brickyardvfx.com) is an independent visual effects boutique specializing in top quality visual effects from 3D characters through to compositing. Completely artist owned and operated, the company was founded in 1999 to bring clients a level of customer service, craftsmanship and focus difficult to find at facilities today. Brickyard's problem-solving expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, rotoscope, color correct and render seamless digital effects for XM Radio, Citibank, Volkswagen, Target, Tyson Foods and many other accounts.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
