Featured Picture 1 Featured Picture 2 Featured Picture 3 Featured Picture 4 Featured Picture 5 Featured Picture 6

"Bulmers - Summer HQ"

Bulmers, the cider brand, has released a new TV campaign with a world war two theme. The campaign is the first by St Luke's since winning the business earlier this year. The spot features the theme tune from the war film 633 Squadron and shows workers being called to action in the manner of world war aircrew in order to create the ideal setting for a man ordering a round of Bulmers. The ad the strapline is "Releasing the British summer since 1887".A series of VoD films include behind the scenes interviews with the Bulmers 'workers'. The TV ad campaign, which launches August 2nd is supported by outdoor.

"Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time" : Feature Fim Title Sequence

For the title sequence, MPC's commercials department created the CG text based on the design provided by the production company, and the sand simulations for the dissolving titles. The simulation was done using Rederman Particles and composited using Shake. Prince of Persia goes on general release on 19th May 2010 and on the 28th May in the UK.

"Mercedes - The Next Revolution"

Tomas Jonsgärden has directed Mercedes "Next Revolution" through Tony Petersen Film / Sonny for Jung Von Matt. The spot highlights the cutting edge technology that has been the brand's signature for over a century. MPC provided extensive environment work and created a full CG F800. Shot at Paramount Studios LA and on location in New York, the film shows the first car (a Benz of course!) to appear on the busy, carriage-filled streets of 1894 New York, and then features a Mercedes F800 concept car in the same streets, this time amongst the traffic jams of 2010. For both the 1894 and 2010 scenes, MPC extended the Paramount backlot, adding contemporary buildings, vehicles and the Brooklyn Bridge. Hand-cranked black and white reference was shot on-set, and this was used to help create an authentic archive look for the 1894 scenes. The Mercedes F800 was modelled from CAD, and textured and lit in CG. The set extension work, and the F800 were composited in Nuke, while the 1894 look was crafted in Flame. Paul Harrison added the master grade and converted the film to black and white, referencing a combination of old original material and hand cranked material. Scratches and flicker were added on Flame. 'Next Revolution' will be on air from July 2010.

"Sony Ericsson - Global Rebrand"

Whilst creating this global graphic identity for Sony Ericsson we had to take into consideration the many different viewing platforms it would end up on. Vicky Gaffitt of Dare Digital asked us to create a global toolkit based around a 'liquid identity'; a pack shot element of twisting liquid in many different forms and colours that would be appropriate for a range of advertising from TV to online marketing. MPC used their knowledge of liquid simulation to provide Dare Digital with the realistic look Sony Ericsson were after.

"Evian - Skating Babies"

Evian 'Skating Babies' wins Gold Award at the London International Awards 2009 for Best Visual Effects and enters the Guinness Book of World Records as most watched viral of all times. The multi-national campaign directed by Michael Gracey brings together choreographed roller-skating babies and the re-mixed street sound of The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight. The viral versions of the infamous Evian; Skating Babies ad campaign have reached new heights in Advertising history on November entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the most viewed viral ads of all time. Their antics have received 45, 166,109 hits since posting making them the most efficient viral campaign ever. The entire portfolio, – including tv, making of and interviews with the babies themselves – have recorded more than 70 million views world wide. 'You have to have a lot of faith in the post production company you are working with, ultimately they define the success of the spot.' (Michael Gracey, Director, Shots.net, 02, July 09) Michael Gracey has directed Evian's latest commercial 'Skating Babies,' a multi-national campaign bringing together choreographed roller-skating babies and the re-mixed street sound of The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight. Created by the agency BETC Euro RSCG, the spot was produced byFabrice Brovelli, Head of TV at BETC and Jaques Etienne Stein at Partizan. MPC created fully CG baby bodies and carried out extensive live action head replacement and compositing as well as large scale digital matte paintings to extend the park environment for the TV and online campaigns. The MPC crew was involved from pre-production, creating pre-vis based on Michael's supplied story board to aid the development of the scenes. Early testing researched the best way to integrate 2D and 3D techniques to create the young skaters, who needed to act like adults, yet keep the babies' personalities. To do this, the VFX team opted to combine live action heads with the CG bodies. To make this happen, a total of 134 babies were filmed, and their heads were matched to 3D animatics displaying the baby like body behaviour. VFX supervisor Dean Robinson and Drew Downes attended the shoot in Melbourne; shooting back plates and lighting reference. They also took reference for the digital matte paintings which enhance the background and re-create the city environment. A mo-cap shoot also took place to capture moves for the background dancers. MPC's team of animators used Autodesk Maya to create the baby skaters' bodies. To ensure the babies appear fully realistic, it was important to carefully match movements, paying special attention to interaction between the shoulders, neck and head. To help achieve this, full CG babies were created and their heads were replaced later by the live action versions from the shoot by MPC's compositing team led by Ludo Fealy. Creating the babies in full made sure the newly positioned heads would follow the shoulder movement naturally. This also helped during the lighting stage, as shadows of the heads could be easily projected. Another challenge was to create realistic skin texture and match the different skin colours. To achieve this, the 2D team composited together multiple layers and carried out general clean-up of the plates. Many elements were shot on RED with the MPC Data Lab handling digital development and processing of the media. For dailies, the lab trans-coded the footage directly to native AVID media files and project bins so editor Ben Harrex at Final Cut could start cutting immediately with no additional transcoding or importing. For the high quality media, the lab was able to process large amounts of 2K data on the render farm very quickly. The lab's client area meant that during the heat of the final delivery stages Michael Gracey was able to make additional footage selections which could then be rendered out and delivered straight to the VFX suites within minutes. Paul Harrison and Jean Clement Soret added the master grade, carefully balancing the back plates, live action heads and CG bodies. The 60 second ad (with cut-downs) will be on air worldwide from 2nd July, 2009

"Ford - Blank Canvas"

"We keep following the same old design rules. Imagine if we could start again with a blank canvas." Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, Ford Kuga's new ad invites us to start over and enjoy this life-as-art spectacle. Nicolai's challenge was to convey the freedom, imagination and ingenuity involved in creating the Ford Kuga. A canvassed city, representing infinite opportunities, illustrated both the directors and agency's vision for the concept. The 60", 40" and 30"versions reached an expected audience of 360 million on its first air, during the Champions League final. The ad was produced by Nell Jordan and Emma Wilcockson through MJZ and Lyn Woodcraft at Ogilvy. Prior to the main shoot, MPC's VFX team surveyed the location, gathering detailed data in order to reconstruct the streets featured in the film. Working closely with Production Designer Jeremy Hindle, it was determined which areas of the set would be covered in real canvas (nearly 55,000 sq feet were ultimately used) and which would be added digitally in Post. The approach remained flexible throughout the shoot and extensive planning of each shot with Nicolai allowed complete freedom of camera direction. 'Blank Canvas' was shot over four days in Universal Studios' backlot in Los Angeles, CA. MPC's team created accurate models of the backlot using in-house image-based modelling software ISIS. These were then covered in canvas and rendered in Maya using Mental Ray. Particular attention was given to 'dressing' the set with small, everyday details to give the city a more believable feel. The canvas elements were enhanced with digital matte painting and composited into the live action plates using Flame and Shake. Extensive rotoscoping was carried out to integrate the live action people and subtle optical and environmental effects were added to enhance the piece. A master grade was added by Jean-Clement Soret.

Dog Days Are Over

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur?

Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur?

Ali Dixon | Visual Effects Artist.

I am a senior Visual Effects Artist with nearly 5 years experience within a high performing, world class team of artists working on TV Commercials, Film & Music Promos. I joined MPC's Commercials department following graduation from Cardiff University. I saw this to be a great opportunity to progress and develop into a senior VFX Artist. I have experience working on extremely large high budget projects and also the fast turnover, lower budget projects. I have recently completed making the Film titles for "Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time". All this has helped me increase my experience of working with a mixture of clients.

 


VFX Disciplines:


3D Generalist, Lighting TD, 3D Modeling, Texturing, Compositing, Camera Tracking.

Software used:


Maya, Mental Ray, Renderman, Nuke, Shake, Photoshop, Boujou, PFTrack, Realflow, Maxwell Render.



C.V. / Showreel / Project Contributions List





Submitting...
  • Ali Dixon | VFX Artist
  • + 44 (0) 7748 646 819