Fusion Digital Productions

“don’t feed the fat cat”

Directed by Paul Griswold & Ernie Mosteller for Brunner Digital’s client, the National Association of Broadcasters. Character designs and artwork by former Veggie Tales 3D design lead, Bryan “Breadwig” Ballinger. Featuring the music of Firewater, this spot was animated in Softimage and Eyeon Fusion.

Click http://vimeo.com/4962320 if you do not see the video above.

Distance was never an issue for Mosteller who was working from Washington D.C. while Griswold worked in Ft. Wayne, IN. It came down to one of creativity, as Mosteller said, “Paul definitely brings something extra to the party. He’s an artist with an understanding of color, texture, illustration style, and all those artist-things — but he’s also a filmmaker. His sense of storyline, character, lighting, framing and motion are like that of a live-action director-cameraman. Working with him is collaborative, and fun. Not to mention, you get high-end stuff without the gigantic price tags and egos I’ve dealt with from time to time in the past. “

• Brunner Digital: brunnerdigital.com
• Ernie Mosteller: mostellercreative.com
• Bryan Ballinger: bryanballinger.com
• Firewater: myspace.com/realfirewater
• NAB: noperformancetax.org

Time-warner

G2 (Grey Global Group, NY) Selected Fusion Digital Productions to create 3D animations for the Time-Warner Business Class website. Mark Chew, Associate Creative Director at G2 says, “I had a great experience working with Fusion. They were very accommodating to our crazy schedule and rounds of changes. And most importantly, the quality of the work was great! I truly mean it when I say I look forward to working with Fusion again.”

The site was part of a complete media campaign for Manhattan businesses looking for high-end business-class internet connectivity. Fusion not only created all the 3D models and animations for the website, but for the print campaign as well.

G2: g2.com

TW Business Class: www.twcbcconnect.com

4ME cosmetics

Brand Innovation Group’s client Bioceuticals needed to create a website to highlight their new line of 4Me cosmetics. Unfortunately the products had not yet gone into mass production and therefore there were no products to photograph for the site. BIG turned to Fusion Digital Productions to deliver photorealistic 3D illustrations of the products.

None of the products pictured on their site are real. They are all 3D illustrations.

Brand Innovation Group: gotobig.com

4Me Skincare: 4meskincare.com

Bioceutical Brands: bioceuticalbrands.com

While 3D renderings will never totally replace photography, it does give designers an entirely new toolkit to work with. And, when the client needs a website or print campaign completed before the product has even begun manufacturing, it’s clear 3D illustrations fill the need.

Contact fusion

Midwest Rep:

Rory Bolen: rbolen@badmonkeycircus.com

312-327-6600

Fusion Digital Productions

260-338-4580

email: office@fusiondigitalproductions.com

West Coast

818-301-5754

New rep

Fusion Digital Productions is proud to announce we are now represented in the midwest by Bad Monkey Circus.

For more information, please email Rory Bolen at: rbolen@badmonkeycircus.com

Or call: 312.327.6600 office

Direct: 312.479.0179

EARTH HOUR

The campaign is currently airing both nationally and internationally.  It was produced by Leo Burnett for the World Wildlife Federation.

To view the 30 second spot, visit the Earth Hour YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/earthhour2009

Or, visit the official Earth Hour website:  http://www.voteearth2009.org/home/

Tool farm interview

Michelle Yamazaki, VP of Marketing for Tool Farm sat down for an interview with Director/Animator Paul Griswold about his role in co-directing the award winning video “Money” for the band N.A.S.A. (feat. David Byrne & Chuck D)

Take a moment to read the interview: HERE

New number

260.338.4580 is the new number for Fusion Digital Productions.  Email, homepage and attitudes have all remained the same.

http://fusiondigitalproductions.com

Motion Graphics Chicago

January 23rd at 2:00 pm, Paul Griswold will be presenting a case study on the production of the music video “Money” for the band N.A.S.A.  Then, from 6:30-9pm the motion graphics festival takes place, where “Money” will be screened along with many other motion graphics projects and animated works of art.

For more information on Motion Graphics Fest 09, visit:  http://www.mgfest.com

Replacing Photography

As the economic crisis continues, it seems companies worldwide are looking to squeeze the value out of every dollar they spend.  Marketing and advertising budgets are no different.  When you are considering your next campaign, consider this:

3D illustrations give you the opportunity to create “photographs” that are significantly better than what could be achieved with a real photograph.  How often do you or your designers have to spend time in Photoshop to clean up smudges, unwanted reflections, defects in the product such as scratches or even fingerprints?

3D illustrations are more flexible, allowing you to get shots that are impossible in the physical world.

3D illustrations allow you to “re-shoot” without having to re-hire an entire photography crew.  Once an object is in the 3D world, modifications can be made quickly and easily without significantly affecting your budget.

3D illustrations can be created for products that don’t currently exist.  You can create your entire advertising campaign for a product before it’s actually gone into production.  Increasing the speed in which your clients can bring their product to market.

The biggest benefit of 3D illustrations is that, once created, the 3D models can be re-used in animations for television commercial campaigns, websites, sales presentations, CD-ROMs or even DVD videos.

As you prepare for 2009, keep 3D in mind as the flexible, cost-effective solution to your projects.

SATISFIED CUSTOMER
“To have such a talented and professional resource in the Fort Wayne area for 3D animation is unbelievable! The end product was easily on par with work we’ve seen come back from the West Coast. I will definitely use Fusion Digital Productions again.”

That’s the reaction of Matt Boylan, Video Production Manager at Audio Visual Integration (AVI) in Fort Wayne, IN after the completion of a series of medical animations. The project had a tight deadline, yet the client needed the animations to be able to be modified quickly and easily. The solution was to break the entire project apart into it’s components and render each as a separate render pass. The final rendered components were then later composited together in Eyeon Software’s Fusion 5.2 software. This allowed for multiple revisions in a very short amount of time. The final project was delivered on time and on budget. Visit AVI at http://teamavi.com

Fusion has recently completed several animations and 3D illustrations for some of the largest medical manufacturers in the United States. If you are in the medical field and are looking to produce an animation or illustration of your product, give Fusion Digital Productions a call.

LUXURY MOTORHOMES

When Andy Boydon of Boydon & Youngblutt Marketing and Advertising came up with the concept of hanging an RV, a box truck and a fire truck from the ceiling of a large factory by robotic arms, he came to Fusion Digital Productions to make it happen. The print ad, created for Roadmaster, reminds readers that most RV manufacturers use truck frames in their Rvs, while Roadmaster builds unique luxury chassis for each product line. Visit B-Y at http://b-y.net

SPEEDY 3D FOR SPEEDY WEIGHT LOSS

“Man…you are FAST. I just wanted to say how impressed we are by the stuff you’ve done AND even more impressed by the speed and communication!” – Chris Blair, Magnetic Image, Inc., Evansville, IN.

Fusion Digital Productions recently completed an animation for Magnetic Image and their client, LA Weight Loss. In the past, Magnetic Image has had to rely on animation companies located in Los Angeles for their projects. However, for this project they felt that Fusion was right for the job.

The final shot shows a can of Controltrim being squeezed into an hourglass shape by it’s belt, signifying the weight loss you can achieve with the product. Despite the final shot being different than the original scripted shot due to multiple changes in the project; the final animation was still delivered on time. Visit Magnetic Image at http://videomi.com

Fusion Powered Music
Video for NASA

NASA, which stands for North America South America is a new band being produced by Squeak E. Clean (aka director Spike Jonze’s brother Sam Spiegel). The band’s impressive line-up includes members like David Byrne, Tom Waits, M.I.A., Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O and Nick Zinner, RZA, the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Kool Keith, George Clinton, the Cardigans’ Nina Persson, and DJ Qbert.

Director Syd Garon, who had previously used Fusion animator Paul Griswold on the award winning feature film WaveTwisters, came to Fusion for assistance in producing the first music video for NASA. The music video would use paintings by LA artist Sage Vaughnsagevaughn.com, (Represented by: Galerie Bertrand & Gruner) as the basis for the animations. Sage produced dozens of original paintings in addition to existing works for use in the video. The paintings were scanned in at extremely high resolutions, then were painstakingly dissected for animation. However, director Syd Garon had many shots in mind that could not be accomplished by 2D animation methods. He turned to Fusion to design and animate shots that were impossible to create otherwise. In addition to these shots, Fusion provided 3D animated elements that were later composited into the final animation to further increase the feeling of depth in the shots.

The final music video premiered in LA at the Swerve Festival. Currently 3 additional animated music videos for NASA are in production. To view the video right-click and download the video to your local hard driveHERE.

This video highlights a technique known as non-photorealistic rendering. This is a technique where you use 3D animation technology to create animations or still renderings that are never intended to look realistic. This can range from cartoon-style rendering to pencil sketch-style rendering to animations that appear to be made out of clay. In a future issue of our newsletter, Timothy Albee will go into more detail on non-photorealistic rendering.

Battlestar Galactica

Speaking of Timothy Albee, Fusion would like to congratulate Timothy for his work on Battlestar Galactica, which recently won an Emmy Award. As many of our readers know, Timothy recently signed on with Fusion but prior to that he worked at Disney and on the hugely popular Battlestar Galactica. Timothy is internationally known as a character animation expert as well as an expert on rendering 3D hair and fur. His film, Kaze Ghost Warrior, shocked the animation community when he revealed the entire project was completed by himself: Timothy was responsible for the writing, directing, voices, modeling, surfacing, lighting, animating and rendering of the entire film. He additionally wrote, produced and performed all of the music in the film. All of this while living in a 1 room cabin in the wilderness of Alaska. If you are interested in viewing Timothy’s demo reel, pleasecontact
us.

Macanix

Macanix, members of the Apple Consultants Network, recently launched their new immersive Web site at www.macnx.com. Fusion was challenged with creating a 3D garage scene that would be interactive, yet not take hundreds of megabytes of download space. With Fusion’s extensive background in creating 3D for Flash, and working closely with the Web team at BIG (Brand Innovation Group), Fusion delivered all of the elements needed to create this incredible website. Head over tomacnx.com and check it out.

The new Fusion website

If you’re reading this as an email newsletter, please take a moment to visit the new Fusion Digital Productions website. A portfolio of still renders is now online. In order to view the portfolio you must create an account. Once you’ve created an account, you will be emailed a verification link. You can then log in to your account, fill out any pertinent information and click “View site” at the top of the page to gain access to the portfolio.

The Volkswagen Palm reader

Did you know you have a little VW in your genes? That’s the premise for a new multimedia campaign created by LaBov and Beyond Marketing & Communications. Fusion Digital Productions created an animated opening for the multimedia campaign.

The animation opens with a strange blue landscape covered by white roads. As the camera races down the roads with increasing rate, the camera pulls back and the viewer realizes they are actually “racing” down a blue and white palm print: the logo for the VW Palmreader.
Fusion was responsible not only for creating the blue and white “landscape” but also for the animation sound design. A recording of a Volkswagen GTI racing around a test track in Germany served as source material for the sound effects.

The final animation will appear on the Volkswagen website, as well as part of a touring multimedia package. The multimedia presentation premiered at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO (http://tevamountaingames.com/) and will tour the country appearing at ski resorts and other extreme sports venues.

Phil Vischer’s Jellyfish Labs

Phil Vischer is best known for creating VeggieTales, one of the most popular children’s programs of all-time. Phil continues to write VeggieTales episodes while recording the voice of “Bob the Tomato” and other characters on the show.

However, his current project is called Jellyfish Labs. Recently, Phil wrote a script for Jellyfish Labs that entailed a German scientist named Dr. Schniffenhowzen explaining “God’s Amazing Universe”. In the piece, a holographic projection of the Earth and sun was needed as a visual to explain what would happen to the Earth and sun if gravity changed.

Following the script, Fusion delivered an animation that included an Earth burning like a marshmallow on fire and a sun “poofing” into a puff of smoke. The final video will be shown at Jellyfishland.com.

You can also read an incredible story of success, failure and faith in “Me, Myself and Bob” by Phil Vischer. (click here)

Mudboxing Bread

One of the most common misconceptions I’ve encountered are people who are uncertain if an object can be rendered into 3D. Commonly, people think that an item is too difficult, complex, organic, mechanical, unusual, or just simply seems impossible to create in 3D. The good news is that I can take this opportunity now to explain how anything you can think of can be created in 3D.

One example is creating a loaf of bread in 3D. The key is it’s important in any 3D rendering to use the proper tools. Just as you wouldn’t try to make real bread using a wrench and hammer, you can’t successfully create 3D bread with typical 3D software.

At Fusion we use software called Mudbox. Mudbox was developed for Peter Jackson’s company, Weta Digital, during the production of the Universal Pictures film, King Kong to allow them to sculpt virtual characters in 3D. Mudbox works like digital clay. It gives the artist the ability to create incredibly complex organic shapes. In this case, the organic shape happened to be bread.

So when you begin to dismiss a difficult project as something that can’t be done in 3D, reconsider this thought. Whether it’s 3D bread, a multi-motion actuator, the planet Earth, or an orthopedic procedure, Fusion can make it a reality.

"Can you
flip the car around so
I can see the other side?"

Recently, a client asked a designer this question, while reviewing a photo for their next print ad. When the designer explained that he couldn’t flip the car in Photoshop, the client was very upset. "Why can’t you?!” the client exclaimed, “It’s already in the computer! Just turn the car around so I can see the other side!".

more >>

"Previs for Print"

Previsualization is a term common in major motion picture production today. Nearly all studio films go through “pre-vis” before any shooting begins. It saves money and time while enabling the director to flesh out his vision before one frame of film is ever shot.
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"But we don’t
do 3D"

That’s the one statement I’ve heard a few times this year that doesn’t make sense to me. I think it stems from a misunderstanding of "3D". When you hear the term "3D" do you think of PIXAR, Shrek or Tron? Many people make the mistake of thinking that 3D is a style rather than thinking of 3D as a method used to accomplish an artistic task. 3D is similar in nature to photography, film production, sculpture, painting and other fine arts.

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"Modeling? You’re not even good looking!"

When a 3D animator speaks about modeling, they’re not talking about the catwalk. Modeling is the process of creating an object to be used in a 3D rendering. The easiest real-world counterpart would be the process of building a plastic model, like the kind you get from a hobby shop.

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