In "Pimp My Ride," Popcorn and Fire are Comin' at Ya

For one of three spots it posted for a new Bud Light campaign – Playbook, starring Carl Weathers as a football coach and Bud enthusiast – Asylum created stereo 3D VFX depicting popcorn flying out of a car's dashboard heater vents and a fire effect coming from a grill tucked under the car's hood. The result, "Pimp Your Ride," is a signature Bud Light spot with a difference – it uses depth effects to enhance a tongue-in-cheek atmosphere. Watch the spot below, then read the Q&A with Asylum's compositing lead Rob Trent and 3D artist Jens Zalzala.

Q: Which animation/compositing tools did you use to create the stereo VFX?



A: They were onlined and composited on Flame 2011. The CG was completed on Side Effects Houdini.



Q: Is stereo 3D capability fully integrated into those tools? Or do you still need to devise some workflow tricks?



A: Flame 2011 has integrated stereoscopic versions of their compositing tools, for the most part. They also integrate desktop editing of stereo timelines in that version. We found the comp tools to be useful about 60 percent of the time, and the other 40 percent was workarounds. This was mostly related to convergence cleanup and tracking.



Houdini comes with a stereo camera rig and a native way to render right- and left-eye images. We modified the rig to work with the stereo camera data generated by our tracking department.