CARY, N.C. - Alternate Route Studios (www.alternateroutestudios.com) has completed work on a :30 spot promoting the opening of the new IMAX Theatre at Exploris in Downtown Raleigh. The spot was conceived by the museum's agency Front Door and combines live-action footage with 3D visual effects.

The first IMAX feature scheduled to run at the theatre is Mysteries of Egypt, and the commercial plays up the Egyptian theme by incorporating the Great Pyramids of Giza, which loom over the city. Director Tim Glover and the Alternate Route visual effects artists worked together to make sure that the live-action shots would seamlessly match up with the 3D pyramids. Alternate Route art director Jeff McFall used Softimage|XSI to extract the 3D data from the buildings in the live action shots, and to build and texture the pyramid. Graphic designer Ed Harriss composited McFall's pyramid into the downtown environment.

The spot was edited in Alternate Route's Softimage|DS nonlinear suite by Robert Reed. Sound design, audio editing and mixing was performed by David Lloyd. Original music was provided by Rod Abernethy and Dave Adams of Slackmates in Raleigh.