National TV Ads You Like

[tutusue]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

stunned when i see them. and would love to know how they do it...

Me too! I'd also like to know the budget(s)! The HP ads were not only recognized for advertising excellence/best campaign and best single ads, but also best visual style, visual effects and production design. Of interest to me is that the director, Francois Vogel, was also one of the visual effects artists. These spots have won lots of awards. It's easy to understand why.

[Pomai]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

Quick! Turn it to Saturday Night Live right now!

SNL goes Commercial 2005 is on. A look back at their spoof TV commercials of the past.

• Morgan Stanley
• Canine calogne
• Kotex Classic
• Woomba

Just to name a few.

Hilarious!

[helen]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

Been noticing a Halls ad that has humans with wolf and pig faces, spoofing the Three Little Pigs story.

[tutusue]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

stunned when i see them. and would love to know how they do it...

The following is a reply from local computer animation/special effects company, Home Baked Entertainment:
"For the HP commercial, since all the frames are simple rectangles,
you can match move in 3D with a simple lineup. The trick to avoiding a
softness pop when going from the live to the textured frame image is to
render the picture element at very high resolution, then shrink it down
to the final format. That way the sharpness will match the original
element.

It's really not that complicated. All you do is match the frames in the live
action shoot with exact copies done in a 3D animation system like Maya or
3DS MAX. Doing it in 3D gets you a more realistic result that reacts
properly to the scene lighting, etc."

Ok, well...this is way over an untechie tutu's head. I'm ecstatic when I render a transition in iMovie!

[lavagal]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

I've only seen it once but I really like this national commercial where people are making correct decisions about food choices: one guy goes with whole wheat for his sandwich and the two ladies in line behind him applaud; a woman chooses Baked Lays from a vending machine and when she lifts the flap to retrieve her bag, the crowd roars, stuff like that. It's really an uplifting, positive, reinforcing commercial. Heck. I just bought a bunch of fresh kale and fennel to accompany the chicken and fresh mushrooms I'm going to make for supper! Where do I get my Queen of the Kitchen Tiarra? @

[kimo55]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

It's really not that complicated.

thanks sue. Much appreciated.

but they are wrong.
it IS that complicated.

[tutusue]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

thanks sue. Much appreciated.

but they are wrong.
it IS that complicated.

I hear ya! I can't even imagine going from iMovie to FCP! But to those who do computer animation and special effects for a living, I guess once they learn the software and create effects day in and day out, the process ceases being complicated...to them! Complicated or not, the HP effects are amazing.

About 5-6 years ago 2 computer animators from Digital Domain gave a seminar here on how they did the effects for 'Titanic'. The theater was packed with industry people, mostly those who were just curious as there wasn't (and still isn't) a large effects business in Hawaii. The 'oooooooohs' and 'wows' coming from the audience were non-stop. It was absolutely fascinating, completely over my head and worth every minute of it!

[kimo55]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

I hear ya! I can't even imagine going from iMovie to FCP!

I outgrew imovie quite fast. esp when i saw it crashing, not able to handle large files: (near a gig). And losing all my hours of work. it is for home movies. shorts...
You can recognize an imove edited piece ten miles away.

I work on FCPHD alla time but still, their explanation of the HP ad is cryptic and decidedly shorthand.

[Pomai]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

About 5-6 years ago 2 computer animators from Digital Domain gave a seminar here on how they did the effects for 'Titanic'. The theater was packed with industry people, mostly those who were just curious as there wasn't (and still isn't) a large effects business in Hawaii.

It was sad when SquareUSA, a division of SquareSoft Japan closed doors here. The hefty inve$tment and eventual box office failure of FINAL FANTASY had the execs pull the plug here. They were located in Harbor Court in downtown Honolulu.

While mostly a video game company, I believe SquareUSA also worked with some major movie studios on CGI effects work. In the Final Fantasy film, they were noted for pioneering realistic hair texture and motion - something that was always a challenge to digital animators.

With all these new movies being shot here, companies such as SquareUSA in Hawaii would have proven that we can hold up to the mainland when it comes to high tech media production.

McHale VideoFilm, a former affilliate of KHON, was featured on the Hawaiian Moving Company a while ago for their work on the memorable "Dancing Meadow Gold carton" commercials. Great work! Unfortunetly they have since closed doors as well, citing a weak economy.

If you read this Star Bulletin article, it's funny how they mention back in 1997 they invested $150,000 in computer equipment with a HEFTY 10 GIGS of hard drive space and WHOPPING 129 megs of RAM.

Gosh, iPods have more power than that nowadays.

[tutusue]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

[...] With all these new movies being shot here, companies such as SquareUSA in Hawaii would have proven that we can hold up to the mainland when it comes to high tech media production.

McHale VideoFilm, [...]Unfortunetly they have since closed doors as well, citing a weak economy.

If you read this Star Bulletin article, it's funny how they mention back in 1997 they invested $150,000 in computer equipment with a HEFTY 10 GIGS of hard drive space and WHOPPING 129 megs of RAM.

Gosh, iPods have more power than that nowadays.

Amazing, isn't it! I'd forgotten about SquareUSA. Dunno why because at least 2 of their alumni stayed and opened up their own businesses. Here's a good article about it:
http://starbulletin.com/2004/09/26/business/story1.html
One of them, Mike Rivero, is now also teaching 3D computer animation/effects classes at UH Manoa's Academy for Creative Media. Those grads will probably add to Hawaii's pool of animators. Hopefully a "Field of Dreams" situation will occur!

Ah, McHales! Some good memories!

[Pomai]

What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas

The new Las Vegas ad...

A young woman is shown unpacking after just returning from Vegas with her friends. Her boyfriend enters the room and says, "How was Vegas? It must've been wild huh?"

She replies, "Oh it was wild" in a somber tone. Her boyfriend looks a little concerned. She then continues, "I bought this expensive pants and these really expensive shoes" as she shows it to him.

He looks relieved and says, "You girls.. you really love to shop", with a smile, then walks out the room. The camera then zooms in on her face as she lets out a sigh of relief like, "Whew, I thought he knew what we REALLY did".

It concludes with the following black screen text...
OUR GREAT SHOPPING CAN BE YOUR BEST ALIBI

[Linkmeister]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

There's a BMW ad I really enjoy right now. The guy's driving along singing what sounds like a children's song, and his dashboard phone rings. It's the BMW service person calling to say he needs an oil change. He says, "how'd you know I need an oil change?" and the service person says "your car called me." He hits the brakes, gets this really worried expression, and says "what else did it tell you?" Service person says, "that's it," and he gives a huge sigh of relief and drives off.

I imagine that the sigh of relief is because he's worried the car called to tell the service folk there was a dismembered body in the trunk.

[EastCoastTropics]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

The most recent Capitol One ad out cracks me up! The one with the chubby new hire dressed as Santa' self and the dogs with reindeer ears pulling the sleigh! The makeup job on the new hire is great....at first I almost didn't recognize him!

[EastCoastTropics]

Re: National TV Ads You Like

I also like the new Hallmark commerical. The one with all the folks gathered in the livingroom around a little snowman playing the piano. Meanwhile, the dog is helping himself to the food on the table in the diningroom!

[helen]

Re: TV commericals you like to watch

The latest Raisin Bran Crunch commerical has the Smith guy going over to the Human Resource person again, since she too is eating the cereal, she can't hear a word he is saying and with his hand gestures gets the impression that Smith has the hots for her.