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<\/a><\/p>\nBoth spots feature top quality character animation and recently debuted in high-profile broadcast and cable outlets across China. Working with director Willis Wong, Lunar Films and Hopr, Nathan Love produced the broadcast\/web spots for J. Walter Thompson Shanghai and their clients at NetEase.<\/p>\n
The first spot brings Fantasy Westward Journey to life in the real world, featuring Chou, sitting on the steps of the Shanghai Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center, playing the game on his laptop computer as others pass by.\u00a0 Serving Wong and director of photography Terry Shen as the production company for the project, in partnership with Lunar Films\u2019 executive producer Ken Yap and producer Ace Tan, Nathan Love\u2019s team was involved from the pre-production stage. This involved helping select locations, planning the shoot, and leading all the animation.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our first spot involving live-action visual effects with a combination of CG characters and animation,\u201d said Joe Burrascano, Nathan Love\u2019s owner and creative director.\u00a0 \u201cGetting more involved in live-action has been a major goal for our studio, so we were extra excited about the opportunity.\u00a0 This project is a great first step in that direction, and we look forward to building on the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Due to the project\u2019s considerable challenges and tight delivery deadline, Burrascano and his colleagues jumped right into organising the project\u2019s workflow.\u00a0 Based upon the scripts and storyboards, they sorted their needs from the live-action 35mm film shoot in Shanghai, and engaged the artists from NYC-based Hopr to serve as on-set VFX supervisors during the shoot.\u00a0 \u201cBy approaching this project as the VFX supervisor, we were able to better plan and control our methods for completing both spots,\u201d Burrascano added.\u00a0 \u201cHopr not only helped us get exactly what we needed from the set, in the end, they also provided VFX artistry ranging from clean-up, sky replacements, colour grading, and compositing.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the models for the animated characters were based on existing videogame designs, and Nathan Love\u2019s charge was to take the animation and final renderings to a new level, and make them work with the real-world environment.\u00a0 \u201cBecause of the popularity of the game, the modelling and animation were held up to a microscope during every review, so attention to detail was very important,\u201d explained Michael Harry, Nathan Love\u2019s executive producer.<\/p>\n After packing its studio with 20 additional artists, Nathan Love\u2019s assembled crew worked through every project detail in Autodesk Maya, striving to create a visually astounding, action-packed spot rivalling the game itself.\u00a0 For each character\u2019s wardrobe and weaponry, substantial simulations were created to bridge the gap between the videogame\u2019s designs and real world physics.<\/p>\n The final steps in the animation pipeline involved a frame-by-frame clean-up and colour grade, before the content was passed along to the artists at Hopr, who used eyeon Software\u2019s Fusion for final compositing. \u201cThese collaborations with our friends in China and Singapore have opened up some new opportunities for us, and for the agencies and clients we\u2019re working with,\u201d concluded Burrascano.\u00a0 \u201cWe look forward to a long and productive partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n Visit Nathan Love <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Soon, Chou and the strangers around him transform into videogame characters and battle each other on the streets.\u00a0 A second promo spot features the videogame version of Chou performing some of his famous dance moves.\u00a0 For the agency, creative director Fei Wei and art director Kevin Huang led the project.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>See other work by Nathan Love on Fired By Design<\/a><\/p>\n