Post-production and its powers are personified in this column. We’ll cover new techniques, technologies and the creative personnel and companies giving them vibrant visual life.

Toronto’s Creative Post has expanded its range of services with a new sister company, The Studio Upstairs. Situated directly atop Creative Post’s current home, Studio Upstairs launched in late June, using Creative Post’s resources and reputation to acquire some pricey, top-of-the-line gear and bring some big names in Toronto post on side.

Headed by Ken Mac Neil, Studio Upstairs’ VP, operations, the new company is loaded with equipment, including the new Quantel iQ platform (apparently one of 13 so far worldwide), which it purchased at NAB2001. The shop is also geared with Version 8 of Edit Box, Quantel’s nonlinear editing system, Discreet’s Flame and Combustion for F/X, 3D Studio Max for 3D animation, as well as Alias|Wavefront Maya, NewTek LightWave, Adobe After Effects and Softimage. The gear has been selected for Studio Upstairs’ broadcast design and post projects, which separate it from Creative Post.

‘Our mainstays are now visual effects, broadcast design and high-definition posting,’ says Mac Neil. ‘I think because [Creative Post] has been around for 15 years gives us a strong base. Plus the fact that at The Studio Upstairs we have HD, high-end animation and compositing – all the tools you need on that level – and we also have a huge infrastructure downstairs.’

Mac Neil insists gear alone does not a good shop make, which is why he hired Derek Grimes as creative director and Debbie Cooke as visual effects producer.

The company has done work recently on spots for clients including Killex, Advil and The Heart and Stroke Foundation, which was fully animated. According to executive producer Michael Churchill, Studio Upstairs looks to have a big involvement in commercials, a prospect that excites creative director Grimes, who joins the company from Command Post/TOYBOX.

‘I was always a long-format person, but when I was at TOYBOX as director of animation, I got to work on a lot of commercials, so I’m looking forward to doing some of that as well,’ says Grimes.

As for the broadcast design division of Studio Upstairs, Churchill says the department is hard at work putting together the broadcast packaging for the fall relaunch of Global’s nightly national newscast. Also included in the package are broadcast design spots for Global station BCTV, a current affairs program and a sports show.

-www.thestudioupstairs.com

A new Spin on cookies

Toronto’s Spin Productions recently undertook a project for Peak Freans brand cookies. The 30-second CG spot features realistic animated cookies acting as butterflies, a piano, a chest and other objects to tantalize viewers.

The ad was put together by Spin creative director Rob Jones and executive producer Lisa Batke, with creative from the Harrod & Mirlin/FCB team of art director Larry Ioannou and copywriter Joseph Nanni.

According to Jones, CG animation can often have a very cold and unattainable look, which was something he and the Spin animators tried to avoid.

‘One of the major challenges was making it look photo-realistic,’ says Jones. ‘Even in live shooting when you do food stuff, a lot of the time you have to search for the pristine version of the cookie. A lot of it was coming up with just the right amount of irregularities so that it looked like the real thing.’

He says the mood set by the textures and lighting in the spot was also important in making the cookies as realistic as possible.

‘Sometimes being understated is harder than being over the top,’ he says. ‘Being understated carries itself in such subtle ways that it’s a finessing thing we wanted to get just right.’

Jones says the models were built using Maya software on SGI workstations. He created the animatics for the spot in After Effects, then moved it over to Spin’s Discreet Inferno suite for compositing and conforming.

‘The reaction back at the agency when it was all said and done was ‘Who shot that?’ ‘ says Batke, as a nod to the realism of the end product. ‘That’s the best compliment I think we could have gotten.’

In other Spin news, Ruth Wani, Spin’s sales and marketing assistant, has left the company to pursue opportunities in Montreal. Batke says she will be missed. Wani promises to let us know where she lands in la belle province. *

-www.spinproductions.com