MINGR Jewelry
Just before Christmas I finished an HDTV commercial for China’s largest gold, platinum and diamond manufacturer featuring Japanese-Brazilian model Akemi Katsuki.
VFX were done at Pixomondo’s Shanghai office where I had the honor to fill the positions of art director & lead compositor. Thanks to my fellow artists for the great and hard work: Simon (particle FX), Jonas (VRay), Lin Kai (modelling), Benson (digital beautification), Mael, Max, Robert and Steffi (additional compositing) as well as Andy (coordination and interpretation). Video clip coming soon.
Director: Stepby Leung
Production: Standard Work Productions
VFX: Pixomondo
Format: 1080p, 30″ – 15″ – 10″ – 7.5″ – 5″
CN 2009
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Oh my, what a cinematic milestone. The storyline is a bit of a nerd’s juvenile Mechwarrior dreams mixed with clichés from Pocahontas, but we’re not wearing those heavy unwieldy 3D glasses for the story, right? The level of realism they achieved when it came to motion capturing and CG environments was incredible. The camera moves felt very real, and the 3D really was as great as they claim it is.
It worked best for narrow spaces and closeup shots of the actors. The shots where they added defocused elements very close in the foreground mostly looked weird though, because these things get cut off in mid-air by the edges of the screen. The Chinese subtitles, floating in the air in front of the screen, were an unusual but funny addition.
Anyway, quite an experience and it I hope the technology becomes common knowledge sooner rather than later so that directors can afford to do interesting plots or arthouse stuff in 3D/CG instead of just blockbusters. And some lighter glasses.
Shanghai Photos 5
Old meets new at People’s Square. A Chinese traffic sign. Unable to fix the traffic situation though.
Pudong reflecting the sunset. Our plan to watch the sun descend into the dust failed. Our favourite lookout (VUE bar on top of the Hyatt on the Bund) wasn’t open yet.
