Issue: Week of March 7, 2003

CUTTING VISION PROVIDES VISUAL EFFECTS RELIEF FOR TUMS

NEW YORK - Post and creative studio Cutting Vision (www.cuttingvision.com) and its visual effects division Infrared Design, recently finished work on a new effects-driven spot for Tums out of :30 Segundos in partnership with Arnold WorldwideNY. The concept for "Pink & Bubbles" was to visually display how the competition's treatment affects the body and the negative reactions it may generate.

Working with a team of designers and Flame artists, creative director/editor Jeff Beckerman and senior designer Jeff Spangler worked closely to create a spot that is heavy on motion graphics and full of excitement. "The challenge here was to show how we can take the competitor's idea of a cure and portray an actor's reaction to it in a humorous sense," says Jeff Beckerman. All of this "while then taking our hero and transforming her into the product demo. We labored over many different concepts and designs to come up with the final look and animation."

Conceptual stills and storyboards gave way to 2D and 3D effects in a revision-filled process, which culminated with a cell shade animation style. "I think the most challenging and rewarding part of the whole process was accomplishing the client's idea of a smooth transition from the "real" world of video to a computer generated landscape," says Spangler. "We must have used every type of software in the building to achieve the ‘hand-drawn' look in the design, but in the end it was so worth it."

Cutting Vision and Infrared Design employed Discreet Flame, Adobe After Effects and Alias Maya 3D to achieve the look they wanted.