motor reduces rotoscoping time from 1 day to 4 minutes
11 October 2006 - Imagineer Systems, the UK-based innovators of next-generation VFX tools, announced today how Santa Monica-based facility, The Syndicate, as part of the motor™ beta program proved the power of motor on a BMW spot.
The Syndicate was tasked with creating a quartet of BMW spots for Publicis. The Syndicate was especially challenged by "Precipice," which was conceived to showcase the car's self-drying brakes just two days before the scheduled shoot. In this spot viewers see how a BMW Series 3's self-drying brakes save the driver from a frightening road hazard. "We were locked into a location, a high road in the Angeles National Forest above the tree line, where there's nothing but open skies," notes VFX supervisor Ben Grossmann. "The new concept had to use that location and the car but sell the story of the brakes in what's actually a sunny and dry environment”. Thanks to The Syndicate's VFX wizardry, the Publicis creatives were able to storyboard the new spot with a fierce rainstorm over the mountain road.
With the timetable to execute the spot trimmed in half to just three weeks, Grossmann opted to use motor, which enabled The Syndicate to significantly speed the rotoscoping process. Based on an advanced method of predictive rotoscoping, motor is "extremely fast and efficient," Grossmann reports. He tested a 100-frame shot whose hand rotoscoping required setting 88 key frames; motor required just four. Hand rotoscoping the sequence took one day while motor zipped through it in four minutes.
"motor made an enormous difference" to the spot's turnaround, Grossmann stresses. "When we wanted to turn the headlights on or make a bumper brighter, motor operator Tim LeDoux could turn on motor and match it in a matter of minutes."
"The motor beta programme is a fantastic success and we are very grateful to all the artists out there who are giving us the necessary feedback to turn this product into a solid production tool," says Allan Jaenicke, CEO at Imagineer Systems Ltd. "We are extremely excited about the efficiency gains reported by virtually all of our beta testers as it gives artist a long desired way of speeding up rotoscoping work."
