User Stories Client: National Film & Television School Project: Take One Painting Click here to read the full story The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is the UK's national centre of excellence for education in film and television programme making. It is the only UK film and television school based in its own studios where students make real films and television programmes in industry-standard facilities with around one hundred productions per year. Client: Adastra for BBC - CBeebies Project: Grandpa In My Pocket - Television Drama Click here to read the full story Animation and visual effects boutique, Dinamo Productions had to complete over 850 effects shots in the space of just two months for the first series of the BBCs live action children's drama "Grandpa In My Pocket". Client: The Sex Pixels in association with Escape Studios Project: The Hunt For Gollum - Independent Feature Film Click here to read the full story When latex prosthetic masks worn by several actors were wrinkling so noticeably that several important shots from the highly acclaimed independent production, The Hunt For Gollum, were in real jeopardy, something had to be done to rescue them. Offering to help, Escape Studios tutor, Mark Pinhiero, had an idea that using PFTrack might offer a quick and relatively painless way to solve the problem. In conjunction with several trainees at Escape, all working under the aegis of third party company The Sex Pixels, he tested his idea with the application and it worked like a dream. Client: Framestore - Digital Lab Project: The Boat That Rocked - Feature Film Click here to read the full story The latest film from UK writer/director Richard Curtis, The Boat That Rocked, tells of a pirate radio station in 1966 that broadcasts from a sea faring vessel off the English coast provoking angry reaction from stuffy establishment government officials who do their best to scupper the station. Client: Rushes Project: Lesbian Vampire Killers - Feature Film Click here to read the full story The recent British comedy/horror spoof directed by Phil Clayden and ostensibly a vehicle for BBC sitcom stars James Corden and Matthew Horne is one of those rare occasions when a movie's name more than describes it's content. So with Lesbian Vampire Killers we all know what we're dealing with. Female vampires in the buffy, if you will. Or as James Corden himself describes it, "Shaun of the Dead with tits". Client: Will MacNeil Project: Liberty Spot "Where Do They Go?" Click here to read the full story It's unusual to undertake a project for an organisation without their knowledge in the mere hope that they might like it and subsequently commission it, but for talented, award winning motion graphics artist and television editor Will MacNeil this strategy is almost becoming a habit. A new spot for the human rights organisation Liberty is a cleverly conceived idea that features some complex tracking and compositing work and was shot, edited, tracked and animated by MacNeil himself. Client: Intelligent Creatures Project: Watchmen - Feature Film Click here to read the full story Transforming the influential and hugely popular comic book series Watchmen into a movie was never going to be easy or without its problems. Certainly Terry Gilliam thought so which is why he turned down the opportunity to direct it, leaving the daunting task to Zack Snyder. Soaked in symbolism and allegory the story involves some complex themes, and at just under three hours the task of conveying these in film takes on epic proportions. Client: BBC, London Project: The Wrong Door Click here to read the full story A groundbreaking new comedy sketch show from (who else) the BBC has created quite a stir by its use of extensive CG Visual Effects that do more than simply decorate the genre. The six part series called "The Wrong Door" uses CG elements not to emulate reality but subvert viewer expectations by blurring the distinction between the real and the surreal. Matchmove artist and Visual Effects Supervisor Hugh Johnson and his small team had to produce over 850 Visual Effects to a very tight schedule. Client: Cinesite, London Project: Underdog - Feature Film Click here to read the full story One of the finest examples of CG photorealism in a live action movie to date can be seen in Spyglass Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures canine Superhero movie, Underdog, now available on DVD in the UK. Utilising the very latest cutting edge technology, including RealScan 3Ds NexGen scanning system and The Pixel Farms state of the art tracking toolset PFTrack, the visual effects in this family, adventure feature directed by Frederik Du Chau, set a high standard for the application of digital artistry in film. Client: The Mill, London Project: Kia Ceed spot Click here to read the full story The Mill recently completed work on a TV spot for Kia Motors new Pro_Ceed model. Racing against time to complete the project, experienced Flame artist Ben Turner saw undesirable smoke drifting across his shot and immediately called in the emergency services of The Pixels Farms PFTrack which extinguished the problem quicker than you can say "auto-track and solve!". Client: Janimation Project: Texas Lottery Commission spot Click here to read the full story Ludovick Michaud, Technical Director at Texas Post facility, Janimation is positively bubbling with enthusiasm when it comes to the Texas Lottery Daily Four. Its not that he has won a fortune playing, but that when had to animate a talking bull and equally verbal horse in a recent television spot promoting the lottery draw, he feels he hit the jackpot with the software he used to assist with the job, PFTrack. Client: Stripe Project: Q-Melk spot Click here to read the full story Dynamic Norwegian Post House Stripe, Oslo, recently completed a spot for Agency DDB which helped transform an ordinary dairy farmer into probably Norway's strongest man, and who intoduces us to a whole new flavour of milkshake, complete with cow. With an obvious interest in cattle it seems appropriate that the impressive visual effects in this commercial for Q-Melk were achieved with the help of The Pixel Farms tracking toolset PFTrack, and in particular its powerful geometry tracking element. Client: Gigapix Studios (Graff Networks) Project: Captain Abu Raed - Feature Film Click here to read the full story If the eyes of a nation are watching expectantly for the arrival of its first feature film for almost half a century, the last thing you need is to find that footage of important scenes you simply cannot reshoot has somehow been seriously damaged. No you're not dreaming, this really has happened. Naturally you curse a lot, try a few ideas to try to fix the problem, but to no avail. Then it comes to your attention that a UK developer called The Pixel Farm has just the thing to repair the damage and deliver the flawless footage you thought you had all along. You try it and it works like a dream. Happy endings all round, and even an award or two. Client: Double Negative Project: Cloverfield - Feature Film Click here to read the full story When Double Negative, London (Dneg) had to create and then destroy large parts of Manhattan in the recent Paramount Pictures feature, Cloverfield they called on the services of The Pixel Farms much lauded tracking and VFX assist toolset, PFTrack. They needed the best help available because it wasnt just an unearthly, giant, killer monster that presented a nightmarish vision, but the movies presentation as faux handicam POV footage itself provoked a few screams of horror from the Dneg crew. Client: Amazing Digital Studios Project: Le Reine Margot - Feature Film Restoration Click here to read the full story The classic French Film La Reine Margot has just been re-released on DVD as the definitive (and probably final) version, and is the cut which Director, Patrice Chreau had always wanted. As the definitive edition, the entire film has also undergone a radical and comprehensive makeover being fully restored and painstakingly cleaned up so that the final product features altogether higher quality footage than ever before. Paris based Amazing Digital Studios using PFClean have rejuvenated the original footage to a condition and quality audiences will not have experienced previously. Client: Mr X Project: Balls of Fury - Feature Film Click here to read the full story MrX Inc is a dynamic, Toronto based Visual Effects Post facility responsible for making Dan Fogler and Maggie Q look like the most talented table-tennis players on earth, in the new comedy feature from Rogue Pictures, Balls of Fury. MrX achieved this by virtue of almost 200 separate visual effects shots featuring composited photoreal digital ping-pong balls into shots of actors miming the action entirely without balls. A tricky job from any angle, but executed with exacting precision with the help of The Pixel Farms uniquely versatile match-moving package, PFTrack. Client: The Lost Film Facility Project: George Best: The Legacy - Feature Restoration Click here to read the full story In an exciting new project The Lost Film Facility restores some fascinating footage of the footballing legend and genius George Best to the public domain with the help of PFClean.Thought to be lost, the footage features twenty 10 minute episodes of football ace, Best, imparting his knowledge and skill to youngsters by way of training sessions.  A truly enlightening glimpse of the man at the peak of his powers the footage will feature in a DVD tribute entitled ‘George Best: The Legacy’ which will include never before seen interviews from his friends and peers, and is scheduled to be released later this year. Client: Troublemaker Studios Project: 'Planet Terror' - Grindhouse Feature Film Click here to read the full story The double bill feature presentation from rebel filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, ‘Grindhouse’ offers an authentic peak at the Z-movie exploitation flicks of the 1960s and 1970s. Harking back to a time of grubby little film theatres, smoking in bars, full civil liberties and err...fun, Grindhouse is a celebration of the worst excesses of the genre, which of course makes for some wonderfully unrestrained cinematic entertainment. Though the look of the films is steeped in the past their production involved very contemporary digital visual effects many of which were assisted by The Pixel Farm’s highly acclaimed camera tracking toolset PFTrack. Client: Rising Sun Pictures Project: 'The School' - Training Facility Click here to read the full story Premier feature film visual effects (VFX) specialists Rising Sun Pictures, Australia (RSP) have chosen The Pixel Farm’s much praised tracking system PFTrack to teach students about camera tracking in their Training Room initiative. As a tool that RSP has been using itself with great satisfaction, PFTrack was the natural choice. Ian Cope of RSP says, “PFTrack is easy to learn and use, and allows students to start tracking shots quickly and efficiently”.The Training Room has been set up in the RSP Adelaide facility to provide real world access for those who want to enter the visual effects industry. To this end the facility has been specifically designed to mimic a working production environment, which also means utilising the same hardware and software that is in use every day in production at RSP. Client: Double Negative, Director: Stephen Hopkins Project: The Reaping - Feature Film Click here to read the full story The Reaping is a religious/horror/thriller with a little star power thanks to Hilary Swank, David Morrissey and Idris Elba. It tells the story of lapsed Christian, Katherine (Swank), her loss of faith after her husband and daughter were killed while she was a missionary in Africa and her subsequent zeal to debunk all that appears miraculous or is considered so by the religious. With issues like that to deal with the last think you need is problems in Post! Client: Rising Sun Pictures, Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Project: 28 Weeks Later - Feature Film Click here to read the full story While working on 28 Weeks Later the match-move artists at Rising Sun Pictures found them selves with some very difficult shots to solve. Thankfully The Pixel Farm was able to provide the solution with their ace match-moving toolset PFTrack. Turning to a new tool while in full production can prove a nightmare but Rising Sun found that PFTrack not only got the job done but was a pleasure to learn and use! click to enlarge Client: Dennis Lowe, Director: Tom Tykwer Project: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer - Feature Film Click here to read the full story PFTrack found itself thrust into a central role as tool of choice by long time Pixel Farm fan Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Lowe, and post production facility Universal Production Partners (UPP). Providing both tracking data and other assistive tasks for compositors and 3D artists all along the VFX pipeline for the recent Tom Tyker feature film based on the Patrick Süskind novel, “Perfume: The Story of A Murderer”. Client: e3 Post, Director: Pete Pessel Project: "Leading The Way" Association of American Railroads - Ad Spot Click here to read the full story 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 Geometry Tracking in PFTrack. Client: Ollin Studios, Director: Rigoberto Castañeda Project: "Kilómetro 31" - Feature Film Click here to read the full story Ollin Studios, Mexico, is at the forefront of a new wave of Digital Intermediate facilities within South America and has recently completed work on new feature, Kilometro 31 for Lemon Films, using PFClean. Client: R!ot Manhatten, Director: Randy Krallman Project: "Pivotal Moments" - Travis Barker spot Click here to read the full story Influential Post-Production studio Riot-Manhattan and its esteemed Visual Effects Artist/Supervisor Toby Brockhurst recently collaborated with Director Randy Krallman, agency Berlin Cameron United and The Pixel Farm to help change the course of music history. Client: Nice Shirt Films, VFX Director: Jon Hollis Project: “Little Slices of Happiness” - Walkers Crisps Spot Click here to read the full story The latest in a series of successful TV adverts for snack food giant Walkers features some impressive CG wizardry, courtesy of Nice Shirt Films and The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack. Director and compositor Jon Hollis found that some of the unique features available only in the new PFTrack 3.5 were of great practical use on this project. Client: Hollywood Intermediate , Director: Aaron J. Wiederspahn Project: The Sensation of Sight Click here to read the full story Pioneering digital intermediate post facility Hollywood Intermediate has recently been hard at work on the feature film “The Sensation of Sight”, using The Pixel Farm’s cutting edge clean up and restoration technology PFClean. Client: LipSync Post, Director: Sean Ellis Project: Cashback 2006 Click here to read the full story Lipsync Post, one of London’s top independent post-production houses, has recently provided comprehensive digital intermediate (DI) solutions including a number of FX shots for new feature “Cashback”, with the help of The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack and PFPlay. click to see the ad Client: Passion Pictures, Director: Peter Candeland Project: Kia Motors - 4x4 Sportage Click here to read the full story As one of Europe's foremost independent film production companies, noted particularly for it's excellence in CG character animation, Passion Pictures, London turned to The Pixel Farm when they needed complex camera tracking solutions for a recent Kia Motors 4x4 Sportage spot. Client: Captive Audience Productions, Visual Effects Supervisor: Michael Shelton Project: The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sony Pictures Click here to read the full story Before Academy Award winning Captive Audience started working on a 187 visual effects shots for The Exorcism of Emily Rose they knew they would be doing the complex digital make-ups exclusively on the project and were looking for tracking solutions that didn't really exist at the time. With this in mind Michael Shelton, Visual Effects Supervisor, started looking for a partner to help with the project and found The Pixel Farm. Client: Nice Shirt Films, Compositor: Jon Hollis End client / project: Maltesers, Mars confectionary Click here to read the full story Legendary London FX artist and director Jon Hollis of Nice Shirt Films recently completed a spot for Mars confection, Maltesers. Working with the line ?A lighter way to enjoy commuting?, the ad features people blissfully ignoring the laws of gravity, apparently floating/bouncing their way to work through a fantasy cityscape on giant Malteser chocolates resembling space-hoppers. . Client: Base Black, Compositor, Mike Connolly End client / project: Hotel Rwanda Click here to read the full story The feature length project was shot on 35mm and went on release in the US in December 2004. Through well known VFX supervisor Dennis Lowe (Cold Mountain, Harry Potter) Soho facility Base Black was approached to work on various shots. Client: Dennis Lowe End client / project: Cold Mountain Click here to read the full story Dennis Lowe had a number of shots to complete which required the matching of movement within live action plates to CG elements and painted backgrounds. This necessitates the use of Match Moving software to create a virtual camera for use with the 3D and compositing environment. After looking into the available solutions on the market, Lowe started working with a beta release of PFTrack, The Pixel Farm's advanced tracking environment. Client: Chemistri End client / project: Pontiac Click here to read the full story The agency chemistri commissioned Universal Images to produce the new spot for the Pontiac G6 to be aired on national television in the US. The brief was to create 3D type driving in a real city environment as if it were a car on the road. The short time scale for the project meant everything had to run like clockwork and the tools used really needed to perform. Client: Michael Marcondes End client / project: Deiro Cine/TV Click here to read the full story The project brief was to create a shot of a large crowd of people carrying a giant flag. There were several challenges - the first one, being with the shot itself. As it was necessary to use library stock, there was no control in the production and being aerial footage, it was also very unstable. This required extensive tracking and masking. The sequence - which was shot from a helicopter - had a broken path, because the camera was on the shoulder of the camera man, without using steadycam. Further to this, without the time to create the flag from scratch another archived image was needed from which numerous mattes were created before being comped into the original aerial footage/shot. Marcondes also had to matte all the trees of the park as well as the buildings to enable him to 'place' people behind them in the shot. Client: Split Image The Pixel Farm Enables Architects To See The Future Click here to read the full story The Pixel Farm, developers of the innovative PFTrack and other optical flow products, recently added architectural production company Split Image to its list of clients. Using cinematic ideas and techniques to express the vision of their clients, Split Image were early adopters of PF technology and products. The company recently completed a DVD, which was required for consultation purposes, to illustrate the ideas behind 'Northstowe', a proposed new town to the North-West of Cambridge.