So, just to interrupt Jason’s posting fest, have a laugh with this funny TV ad for the new racing game BLUR. It’s good to be back!

Blur does it again, with an amazing FMV trailer for the new DC Universe Online. Well done!

Watch trailer. Freak out. No need to say more.

When you combine David Fincher, Blur and Dark Horse comics, prepare for some CGI horror yummyness!

The Goon is a comic book series created by Eric Powell in 1999. The story is about the adventures of the Goon, a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for the feared mobster Labrazio. The Goon (and his sidekick Franky) often get tied up in other machinations, often in relation to the evil zombie gangs under the command of the Nameless Zombie Priest. The series has a distinctly paranormal slant, with the average story concerning ghosts, ghouls, skunk-apes, extra-dimensional aliens, and mad scientists.

Watch the teaser below!

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/here-comes-the-goon-squad/feed/ 0 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/something-left-something-taken/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/something-left-something-taken/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:57:21 +0000 jcullen http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=1286

As always, we at Luma are suckers for a good “behind the scenes.” So check out this AMAZING short film and the incredible amount of work that went into “Something left, Something taken!” Well done!

Behind the scenes here

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/something-left-something-taken/feed/ 0 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/for-the-geek-in-all-of-us/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/07/for-the-geek-in-all-of-us/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:18:33 +0000 jcullen http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=1314

Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0 – Teaser from Thiago Costa on Vimeo.

Woah, take a look at some of the physics tests done in Softimage XSI with ICE. Wow!!

If I mention the word “Boom Shaka Laka” and an excited chill runs through your body, well then read on my friend from some amazing behind the scenes of this new remake of NBA Jam!

Before going any further watch the debut trailer above.

Then to feed your addiction,  check out the actual game play below

Right, now we have your attention. To further enhance your skills take a look at this amazing behind the scenes put up by 1UP below.

Interesting to see the process

Focus Testing

More info and concept art can be found here.

Alright, just one more trailer to get the excitement back in!

Check out our local game dev scene at Luma.

Luma Animation and Ogilvy Johannesburg teamed up to create one of the first Stereoscopic 3D Cinema commercials in South Africa for the DStv brand. Read on to see behind the scenes!

Directed by Paul Meyer for Luma, this groundbreaking 65″ fully animated commercial was conceptualised by the creatives at Ogilvy Johannesburg: Art Director Chantelle dos Santos, Copywriter Dan Parmenter and Creative Director Jonathan Beggs.

A quick snapshot of the layers of a composite

With an extremely tight schedule, it took huge effort from every team member at Luma, as the animators and compositors pulled out all the stops to bring the project in on time.  With up to 15 people working on the job literally every artist on this job put in 150% – and it shows on screen.  “We could not have pulled it off without this level of dedication and committment from everyone in the team”

DStv 2D animatic

The commercial tells the story of a little girl who visits a balloon artist in a park.  The artist becomes increasingly more exasperated and desperate as he tries to impress the little girl, who does not seem at all interested in his dazzling array of balloon creations.

We thought we would share with you some of the concept art that went into this production:

“It was a real privilege for us as Luma to win this board. It feels more like an animated short film than a TV spot and it looks so good in 3D on the big screen”.

Graham Pfuhl, Marketing and Sales Director of DStv is delighted with the ad. “DStv is all about entertainment and 3D depicts that entertainment in a very special way”.

The commercial will be flighted in 3D cinemas nationwide throughout June and supported by balloon themed cinema activations.

“One of the those rare experiences and smiles all round.  We thank Ogilvy and DStv”.

Luma

Paul Meyer – Director
Werner Ziemerink – Head of 3D
Martin Sen – Animation Supervisor

Erik Kruger – 3D Animation/rigging/3D anamatic
Tim Morar  – Environments/Lighting
Athanase Georgellis – Environments/3D Animation
Jason Cullen – 3D Animation
Chaduka Phiri – Modeling and 3D Animation
Ruaan Grobler – 3D Animation
Charl Smit – character designer and concept artist/2D anamatic
Brendan Noeth – concept art and texturing
Ryan Crocker – 3D animation

Nicola Shackleford – Producer

Gerhard Painter – Compositing
Chris Wieffering – Compositing
Johan Scheepers – Compositing

George Bergh – IT

More DStv in the news and other links

http://www.tvsa.co.za/default.asp?blogname=tv&articleid=14547
http://www.filmcontact.com/south-africa/dstv-commercial-goes-3d
http://www.totallymad.co.za/?idstory=27010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvwFjBLR9kc

Luma Arcade

So after you have directed Pirates of The Caribbean, what is next? Well Rango of course!

• Rango movie produced by Blind Wink, directed by Gore Verbinski.
• Release date March 18, 2011

More info here

Luma Arcade has been getting a lot of attention regarding a tech demo that they developed in-house for Microsoft called the Harvest, which was used by Microsoft at GDC and MIX10 in San Francisco and Las Vegas earlier this month to promote the newly announced Windows Phone 7 Series. It was built on Luma’s in-house 3D rendering engine built on the XNA Game Studio 4.0 framework. The Harvest runs on what Microsoft is calling the ”Three Screens”, namely the Xbox360, Windows PC and the new Windows Phone 7 Series. More to come, so watch this space!  Take a look at some of the inside scoop from Slashgear, Engadget and AnandTech.

GENRE: ACTION RPG

In the game world, the player must fight through the decayed remnants of an ancient holy city many years after a vicious alien invasion in order to save what is left of humanity.

More info on the Windows Phone 7 here.

Got this link from Dale – he’s busy putting together a bike of his own (we’re putting pressure on him to post his progress somewhere) – Beautiful graphics beautifully printed. Lovely attention to detail with a touch of sexiness. Check out silencetv.

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/03/riders-villains/feed/ 0 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/03/the-artists-of-south-africa-hylton-warburton/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2010/03/the-artists-of-south-africa-hylton-warburton/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:35:55 +0000 chris http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=1155 In this blog we would like to highlight some of the amazing talent found here in South Africa! To start off, we proudly showcase:

Hylton Warburton

Check out his Flickr account for illustration awesomeness or chat to him on Twitter.

Use local!
Peace!

Samurai from Phil Shoebottom on Vimeo.

A piece done by realtimeuk.com‘ during their “downtime”.

Director/ VFX artist Sam O’Hare has finished a short film, The Sandpit using the Tilt-Shift method! Awesome grade too. In true Phew blog style, check out the making of HERE!
More examples can be found on Google Images here.

Bnko showcases a gritty, edgy steampunk aesthetic in his new Fire Munn. So for those that are interested check out his site with more awesome pictures HERE!
If you are into the Vinyl toys, check out this site on the latest news in the industry. Vinylpulse.

Luma Arcade Showreel 2010

Click to see more!

REV on InstantAction

MINI#37 In_Game

Flipt Mockup – now on sale at the Apple store

Click here to buy

Review of Flipt

Wes Anderson is my favorite director/storyteller. Now he’s spent the last 5 years working on bringing to life Roald Dahl’s book Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now I have a new best movie without ever seeing it! I’m also getting this fine publication on the Making of.

It’s been 3 years in the making, and the two bunees have finally arrived!

Take a look at our two TV spots!

More to come so keep watching this space!!

Visit the official website here!

Exclusive Pixar short featuring George and AJ, characters from the feature film Up

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/new-pixar-short-george-and-aj/feed/ 0 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/shootem-up/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/shootem-up/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:55:13 +0000 admin http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=1066

Hecq Vs Exillion – Spheres Of Fury from Tim.Chris.Film on Vimeo.

Nice side project by Christopher Hewitt and Tim Brown. Shot on a Canon 7D. Liking the end titles!

Here’s another behind the scenes of how we created the global commercial for Standard Bank.

Initially, we teamed up with TBWA/Hunt Lascaris (The same team that won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix award for their Zimbabwean campaign) here in Johannesburg, to pitch a  treatment for the bank’s new corporate direction called “Moving Forward”. This was based on kinetic typography, with the use of photo’s, illustration and typography.

After the pitch was accepted, we were re-briefed to take the flat 2D interpretation and see how far we could take it for the global TVC. The rest of the campaign rested on the following three pillars: Paper – acting as vehicle and backdrop, Typography – carrying the narrative, and Iconography – the combination of recognizable elements that form an idea.

We decided to take a 3D journey through a paper world. The paper would be alive and shape itself into whatever the scene required. On top of that we shot real people, which we added into the mix of relevant elements to create an icon of each idea.

We had 8 weeks to pull it off.

So, we started on storyboarding the full commercial. This gave us a good sense of what elements would need to be created, while starting to paint the picture (or whatever was in our heads) for client. Once the client had approved the boards, we put them together in a timeline with a rough voice over. Here is the animatic:

While this is being worked on, the animators started to model some of the 3D elements we would need. Most of our 3D is done in Softimage XSI. Others started doing tests on animation and the designers doing some “more finished” boards to placate the client after seeing some crappy looking wireframe renders. Here’s some work in progress elements:

Then we began planning the shoot. After doing a very rough (I mean, “you’ll never get to see it” kind of rough) 3D animatic, we knew exactly what to shoot and how to shoot it. We solved a lot of camera angle issues and addressed a lot of the more complicated  problems we’d eventually face in 3D. While the whole studio was busy laying the foundation for all things CGI, we started doing pre-production. We had a two day shoot as we had to shoot for an additional South African version. We shot on the awesome Red One Camera. Check some pics.

So now we had the footage. A couple of hard drives full. Shots then got selected by looking at a whole range of criteria. How’s the performance? Is the lighting correct and is the subject in focus? How smooth is the shot, do we have to spend hours stabilizing? All these questions needed to be answered for every shot before we could continue.

The selected shots then had to be tracked if we needed the information for our 3D camera. This gives the virtual camera the exact same attributes as the real camera, movements and it’s position relative to the subjects it’s filming. Here’s a shot for the transition from the ATM to the farmer. See if you can spot where we stabilized the motion of the real camera.

Then we keyed out the green stuff (with Keylight in After Effects Cs3) and after some sweat and a lot of tears, the subjects ended up in our scene where we composited all the various elements together. Here is some of the illustrations and designs used in the final commercial.

And then, and only then… just when everyone is ready to quit their jobs and go on sabbaticals, everything comes together. Life is good again and there is hope… And a 45 sec TV commercial that will flight for 3 months… and then be forgotten…
At least there’s a version on the web and you’re looking at it. We hope you like it.

Luma
Gerhard Painter – Director and Compositing
Chris Wieffering – Compositing and Design
Johan Scheepers – Illustration and Design
Werner Ziemerink – 3D Animation
Erik Kruger – 3D Animation
Karen Botha – 3D Animation
Sean Viljoen – 3D Animation
Jason Cullen – 3D Animation
Paul Meyer – 3D Animation
Athanase Georgellis – 3D Modelling
Ruaan Grobler – 3D Animation
Helena Batty – Producer

TBWA/Hunt Lascaris
Damon Stapleton – Creative Director
Nadja Lossgott – Art Director
Nicholas Hulley – Copy Writer
Sandra Gomes – Producer

Capture
Veronica Gerfen – Production

Red One
Russell Cambell – DIT
Tai Krige – DOP

Also, big respek to Guy van der Walt aka Plasticboy that dropped in to give a helping hand as 3D Lead.

In maintaining the momentum of our “behind the scenes” series we found an awesome post on District 9 from the team at CGSociety. Now we have a little more pride in this movie as it was created by a local man Neill Blomkamp. So for all you tech freaks out there, check out the brilliant articles. Don’t forget the “making of” is a two part series!

Direct links:

Just take a peek into the brilliance of a group of students in Japan and their short film called “Fumiko no Kokuhaku.”

Then when you are done admiring the over the top animation and brilliant expressions, feast your eyes on the “behind the scenes” gallery here. Just to whet your appetite we included a few samples!

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/how-cool-is-japan/feed/ 0 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/the-making-of-ford-everest-bear/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/the-making-of-ford-everest-bear/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:25:56 +0000 jcullen http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=633 We thought we would share with everyone our behind the scenes process of the new Ford Everest TV spot.

After receiving the script, our first step was to create our fluffy hero. We went through tons of reference and even bought a whole bunch of little keyring bears. We then drew some concept sketches to present to director Greg Rom from Humanoid and the creative team at JWT, lead by Paul Strappini.  These concept sketches allowed us to really think about the personality of the hero. This is such a vital step that often gets left out, especially in TV commercials, but the difference it brings to a character is day and night.

The design process of the hero bear was one of the toughest challenges. At the end of the day, we all felt that the hero must be an “accidental hero” who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. So the design of the bear should be your average keyring bear you can find in any store. We felt this would get more empathy from the audience. So we decided on the final concept design below.

Next we sculpted the final approved character. This not only helps to sell the character, but really helps the 3D modelers with an exact approved shape in 3D to work from.

Now the fun begins. We take all the input we have received from client and start in 3D. Paul Meyer from Luma directed the animation and visual effects. Below we included some work in progress of our lighting tests and ambient occlusion renders, as well as work in progress animation.

Ambient Occlusion Test

Lighting Test

OpenGL animation

Ambient Occlusion Pass

We also had to produce a matte painting for some of the backgrounds to really enhance the setting. This was done using a combination of high res stills shot on the day of the shoot, together with added elements of lighting effects and sky replacements.

Matte painting background

Finally, it all comes together, producing the commercial you now see on TV. If you haven’t seen it, click on the movie below.

If you want to see more, scroll down to the gallery! (Warning, may contain weird looking people!)

Credits:

Luma

Humanoid

JWT

Step 1: Get hold of Dreamworks

Step 2: Invite the two directors from Lilo and Stitch

Step 3: Watch the trailer

Check out the official website here, or to read more on IMDb

First up Judd works at Naughty Dog as the Art Technical Lead, and if you check out his blog, you will understand why. Judd is one of those “I hate you so much right now” multi talented guys who do everything. Animation, sculpting, programming, rigging, you name it! This man has done it, and done it well! Can we just add, with total pride that Judd is South African!! Yup, this man is home grown talent.

Now as for the company he works for, lets just say they are taking over the world not just one step at a time, but rather in leaps and bounds with some secondary animation in-between. So what has Naughty Dog done that should impress us? Look below.

Yes, this is the team that brought you Uncharted 2! Brilliant game play, high-end cinematics and jaw dropping tech tools. If you are a tech junkie, take a look at the behind the scenes clips courtesy of Naughty Dog.

Click me!

As an added bonus we found a presentation Judd and Jeremy Yates (the animation lead at Naughty Dog) did for GDC on the animation work flow. (Click on the image to view the PDF)

With that all said and done, we would like to thank Judd for his awesome visit, and wish him well as he heads back to the USA, to work on other kick ass projects that will no doubt make us all drool. Come home soon Judd!

]]> http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/a-visit-from-naughty-dog/feed/ 1 http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/prince-of-persia/ http://www.luma.co.za/blog/2009/11/prince-of-persia/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:42:47 +0000 jcullen http://www.luma.co.za/blog/?p=808 With the game that started it all, comes something you may or may not want…THE MOVIE!!!!!!

Yes, it seems Jerry Bruckheimer has got his paws on a new project, the Prince of Persia movie. Now generally we all love Mr Bruckheimer for his popcorn action movies. Then again he did bring us G-Force…ugh. So maybe this film will bring him back on the road to recovery. Only time will tell. In the meantime feast your eyes on this uber visual effects, CGI intense, compositing nightmare with no acting what so ever trailer of the all new PRINCE OF PERSIA! (huge applause)

Now in-case you are a die hard fan, we have also included a “behind the scenes” which should reveal absolutely nothing. (See below) Or click here to read the very deep, sooo not cliche, plot.

So if after reading this blog you still don’t really care who the hell this Prince of Persia guy is and wondering how all this hype started in the first place…well… here is the original Prince of Persia game. Enjoy level 1 you unbeliever!

Now isn’t that all worth it?