AnimA TV

In April 2006 Capture Berlin was contracted to do the post production for the music video of Jonathan Walters debut song. Together with Qfilm Hamburg (production) and Uwe Flade (direction), who had previously worked for international stars like Depeche Mode, Nickelback or Franz Ferdinand, a video with over 80 effect shots was created.

Footage was shot with HDCAM in a studio in Berlin. Michael Labs was present on set as vfx supervisor to make sure everything was going smoothly for the post production process. A bluescreen set was used because nearly all surrounding elements were going to be created digitally, with the exception of special props like the bicycle, sand and the spaceship door. Jonathan was suspended from a wire rig to simulate a zero gravity environment inside the spaceship. All the effects were manageable for a company like Capture Berlin: keying, wire removal of the rig, creation of several 3D backgrounds as well as 3D animations and 4 point tracking for the insertion of the picture on the polaroid photo were just standard tasks that hat to be done in a short timeperiod.

Music videos are usually created with a very short production time. Before the first shot has even been filmed the animations are prepared and coordinated. Postproduction started right after the first edit of the video had been approved. Time was not on our side. Capture Berlin had 10 days to create or edit 80 shots. 8-9 people from 3D, compositing, editing and project management were working on the project and first estimates looked grim.

Tight organisation and established project management structures enabled us to eliminate misunderstandings and coordination problems. Strict file naming and placement conventions as well as the use of our internal intranetbased storyboard system were the main factors that helped us to concentrate more on getting all shots done. The time constraints made it necessary for us to create several shots in 2D as opposed to proper 3D shots. The photos drifting inside the spaceship were 2D layers and the desert was a matte painting.
In the end we were able to stay within the schedule and even do some additional changes.

Productions like these require a good collaboration with the director to create good visuals.
3D artist Klemens Neumann created the spaceship set segment by segment in 3D Studio Max. Afterwards Sobelfilter and a light colour correction were applied in Digital Fusion to created the desired look.

The bicycle scene was created by compositing supervisor Axel Gärtner with just a single 3D palm tree and several generated blades of grass in the style of a No Doubt music video.

Creating the right look for a scene always requires several iterations which can take up to several days. This is a creative process that combines the inputs from all people that are involved in the production into an exciting result. Participating in this process are the artist, his supervisor, the musician, the record label and the management of the musician. This accumulates to many opinions with some having more others less weight which can make the work on a music video very easy or much more complicated.

After several nightshifts a new music video was created that will be shown on VIVA or MTV. For a digital artist this is a big part of the reward for all the energy and sweat that has poured into the project.
A big “thank you” to all the staff members and freelancer that worked on this project.