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The Agency of the Year Invite by RedFilm

The Agency of the Year Invite is a film presentation event spot by RedFilm, RF Sweden AB, for awards festival Årets Byrå 2010. Next Limit Technologies had the chance to interview Pablo Fernandez, Director and 3D artist at film production company RedFilm, about this 30 second animation work.

Incorporating Maxwell Render in the RedFilm project

"RedFilm was greatly honored when asked by industry analyst Regi Research & Strategy CEO, Robert Skölfman, to create the entire annual awards show The Advertising Agency of the Year Gala," Pablo Fernandez told us. "The invitation to the event was of utmost importance - so we decided to do something that had never been done in Sweden before."


The spot -a special digital Invite and Intro:

Pablo Fernández: RedFilm decided to show a fictional ad agency in total chaos. What better way to interest viewers who have seen it all? And, what better way than to have the fictional CEO, seconds away from being live on stage, attempting to keep control of his agency by standing firm in the middle of his imploding/exploding office while everything around him flies around the room.

One method for achieving this look was to actually shoot exploding particles with the Phantom camera, and then composite them all back together. In the end, however, we chose a different process. I decided to shoot the actor against a green screen - one long take on dolly tracks. Then, I created the entire room in 3D - interior and exterior, as well as all furnishings in the room. Having worked with 3D for eleven years, the choice was a no-brainer. This approach would be easier to manipulate, less costly and create my exact vision. Inspiration came from vintage film noir movies, the final scene of "Fight Club" and the VIV MAG animation. I love noir and definitely wanted a touch of that look.

Next Limit: Where was Maxwell Render used exactly?

Pablo Fernández: Maxwell Render was utilized throughout the entire spot.
The only actual shot is the actor - alone against the green screen.

N.L.: Why did you decide to use Maxwell Render?

P.F.: I'm sure you know the work of my friend Michael Bengtsson from Meindbender. He told me that Meindbender uses Maxwell Render for all renders which, since the 2.0 upgrade, was working amazingly well. I decided to give it a try.

I tested the product for a couple of days and what really amazed me was the fast workflow. I could shade and texture in minutes and get great results. I consider the online Gallery to be pure genius. Often there is little to no time to write shaders for bits and pieces of materials such as glass or metals. With the gallery, they are just a click away. Naturally, I also loved the Multilight Function since it saved so much time. Using this, I could roughly light my scene the way I wanted and then tweak it after the render was done.

N.L.: How easy was it to incorporate Maxwell Render in the RedFilm pipeline?

P.F.: It was really easy. I did the compositing myself so I knew exactly what I wanted from the render and I got exactly that!

N.L.: What was the most challenging part of the project and how did you overcome that challenge?

P.F.: The thing that kept me up at night thinking and thinking was the fact that I needed a separate render of everything that was flying in front of the actor. Those things had to reflect and refract the background but the background had to be invisible. I'm sure there's an easier way than the one I used. I just used the camera's farclip to hide everything behind the actor.

N.L.: Did you create the materials used in the scenes, and if so, how did you go about it? Did you use the Maxwell Material Gallery as a resource or reference?

P.F.: Some of the materials and shaders I created myself but many were tweaked versions of materials from the gallery, which really saved a lot of time.

N.L.: Are you pleased with the final results? What was the feedback from the end client?

P.F.: I was really pleased. The client couldn't believe what we had done in such a short time. The feedback from the agencies was really good as well.

N.L.: Do you plan to use Maxwell Render on future projects?

P.F.: Ohhh yes. Why wouldn't I?

N.L.: Please specify what other software you used and what hardware you worked with.

P.F.: For this project we used Boujou for tracking, Maya for modeling and animating, Maxwell Render for rendering, of course, with compositing in After Effects.

RedFilm

Production Company RedFilm, also known as RF Sweden AB, offers creativity with quality to every client. A unique thought methodology leads to visual concepts created with technical and dramaturgical expertise to reach the target audience in a novel way. The production company consists of Mattias Modig, San Malmström, Niklas Lehman, Daniel Buckard and Pablo Fernandez.

Credits

Digital Invitation / Introduction / Commercial Spot for awards ceremony:
The Advertising Agency of the Year Gala, Sweden

Creator, Director and 3D artist:
Pablo Fernandez, RedFilm - RF Sweden AB redfilm.se

Camera: Iga Mikler