Visual Effects: e3 Post- Virginia, USA Director: Pete Pessel Production: "Leading The Way" Association of American Railroads - Ad Spot Agency: National Media Inc Recently formed post production ‘boutique’ e3post and its award winning team have just completed a 30 second spot for the Association of American Railroads, (AAR). Largely a chromakey shoot the spot contains some tricky but beautifully executed CG composits which VFX talent Victor Wolansky insists were made so much easier using The Pixel Farm’s tracking and motion analysis toolset, PFTrack. Wolansky has a reputation for creativity and impressive VFX which he earned designing and finishing projects for Coca Cola, 7-Up, Samsung, etc, and for agencies such as BBDO, Grey and Young and Rubicon over several years work in his native Argentina.  Together with Editor Terry Halle, whose considerable experience spans across feature films, TV movies, trailers and commercial spots and more years than he probably cares to remember, they firstly had to persuade their client to look at a more interesting visual narrative to deliver their message. Victor Wolansky explains, “ The client wanted to have the spot simply as a talking head, reading their script. We offered them a new proposal which I did a very quick, rough animation of in 3Dmax, so they could better visualize our idea”. Needless to say the idea was a hit and work began in earnest. With the exception of one aerial shot the entire spot was shot in a green screened virtual set. This was the solution to the client’s stipulation that no real location could be used. Because the AAR is an association of many separate companies, using one place over another might cause internal political problems, so a virtual set was the answer. This would also allow for the creation of a specific hi-tech look and feel with tailor made backgrounds, props and graphics, blending easily through seamless transitions. Using HD 1080 at 24p so that zoom shots into screens would hold up sufficient resolution not to pixelate, each shot also had to be carefully tracked. Having used almost all the better known tracking applications over the years Wolansky says the decision to use The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack was an obvious one. “Tracking is easy and fast with PFTrack” he says, “For example if the camera lens has some distortion, PFTrack deals with it perfectly. Also, a lot of moving objects, present in some scenes, are discarded by PFTrack automatically. Something else I have noticed with it compared with other packages, is that the interface is very responsive, fast, agile, and easy to work with”. Wolansky also made expedient use other complimentary functions unique to PFTrack which go beyond conventional tracking. These include segmented tracking, whereby a shot containing different camera moves can still be tracked in a single pass. Geometry tracking, which allows for the import of 3D geometry and the means to then accurately match it to the live action using the actual plate as guide, or the geometry can be aligned to known geometric forms in the plate and used as the basis for the track’s solve. The Pixel Farm have also included 3D modelling functions into PFTrack, so that bespoke geometry can be created from within which exactly matches the plate, which again acts as guide. This means PFTrack can also serve as a powerful pre-visualisation or animation planning facility. Wolansky considers this a completely useful innovation within the technology and another reason why chooses PFTrack over any other tool.  He explains, “I used the PFTrack modelling feature to model some props, to help build matte objects and to cast and receive shadows. I always use this function as an ultimate test for the tracking. If 3D models made within the program are easy to create, and match all the shots from start to finish, I can be sure the tracking was perfect.” All the chromakey shots were designed and supervised by Wolansky himself, the parameters of which where partially influenced by the known flexibility and range of options he knew were obtainable from PFTrack.  He remarks “PFTrack was used to track all the shots in this spot, to replace backgrounds, to pinpoint objects on the stage and to replace screens and logos etc. Something that really helped is it’s ability to let you add more points to the scene and solve them with pinpoint accuracy or to identify the exact location of an object in the scene, without having to guess where it is. Just point, track, name it, export it, and place your 3D object there. Also it’s ability to easily orient a 3D scene just by drawing lines that identify the XYZ axis is a great help, making the entire process really fast”. E3Post is located in the Washington DC metro area, near to the National Airport and brings together the talents of three principal artists with widely different backgrounds. Victor Wolansky, DS artist and 3D expert has composited and finished spots in Buenos Aires for Coca Cola, Telefonica, Nestle’s and many others. For the past 2 years at e3 Post he has designed spots and videos for General Electric, PhRMA, Telefonica, Orlando Magic, Freddie Mac, Cox Communications, and many more. John Long, Smoke artist, has designed and finished spots for an equally esteemed list of clients. Terry Halle, senior Avid editor, has been cutting dramatic shows, spots, and videos for over thirty years. Beth Moss, our newest Avid editor and After Effects artist, completes our nucleus of talent. To see the side by side before and after spot click here. www.e3post.com Words: Martin Southwood