The Mill - Mercedes 'Clouds' Commercial on CGNetworks

[Annuostivix]

thanks! That was pretty cool. Although sometimes the clouds struck me as kind of goofy looking. The cloud men I mean :D I love intense cg commercials though.

[phoenix]

thanks Leonard
a truely amazing work ... very impressive ...

[Gremlin]

looks fabulous,
and effective...I want a mercedes more than I did 5 minutes ago.

[LiQ]

looks fabulous,
and effective...I want a mercedes more than I did 5 minutes ago. lol

Fcuk me!!! That's awesome ad.:eek: And Rammstein really suits it too.
I hope that gets played over here in Australia.:scream:

*bows*:applause:

[iam4]

Your work is always so astonishing:twisted: there're very good job!
so cool...:thumbsup:

[iamintricate]

Very very impressive, sleek, and clean.

Looks like it was a fun, yet intensive learning experience.

Cheers.

[Garma]

that's impressive! Wonderful job on the clouds!

[miloszwl]

awesome :drool:

[sebcesoir]

Nice... Thats true thats the clouds guys looks gooffy...
Is it made with the powerfull clouds sytems of maya?

[DEVARSHY]

No doubt, Very well executed.
Kudos to The Mill on that.

But for people who have seen the ILM short

WORK IN PROGRESS (http://www.ilm.com/insideilm.html),

this is nothing new.
If Im not wrong, Ryan Church did the concept design for the clouds in that short.Such eerie simililarity can be attributed to anything but coincidence.

Wonder how concepts reach the stages of approval and completion without people knowing the real source of the concepts.

[mimo8]

very epic but the plot got a bit boring.
the whole cruising between shadows was a bit too long, I think you get the idea with the first turn he takes, but then it is followed by 20 others.
also I agree with Annuostivix that the cloudmen are a bit dull.
but the visual quality is great

thnx cgtalk for supporting us with all this nice reports on top comercials

[elektronaut]

awesome commercial! very stylish! like it.

[dudders]

great camera work and very highly polished but have to agree with mimo8 and Annuostivix, dont think the theme was strong enough either, kinda made me think why the hells he dodging clouds so madly (i know why) but it didnt come across that well.

[Sceme]

beautiful. I just don't like Mercedes and i didn't like that almost 360 camera turn part ;)

[fr3drik]

Kit: Spirit, Flame, Alias Wavefront Maya 6, Softimage XSI, 3D Equalizer, Mental Ray

Pardon me, but what is "Spirit"?

[mimo8]

Pardon me, but what is "Spirit"?

its the basic inspiration you need to make such a spot
:D


just joking - never heard it before ... or it it "The Spirit" by will eisner

anyhow congrats fr3drik ... sweden - soccer - potugal - u know :thumbsup:

[AdrianWilliams]

wow i had no idea that these guys did all those ads and film vfx.....totaly cool i love the part where th gymnast is on the twin bars really nice:love:

[steverage]

Spirit is a telecine machine for transferring film to video....:)

Anyone know what the music is? Someone mentioned Rammestein, but whats the track called?

[SteveV]

Sorry...yawn, there's no substitute for imagination. Plenty of technical skills for one corny ad.

[Self-Designer]

I think it's my 1st post since the upgrade... ;)

The music reminds me Puff Daddy's version of "Come with me"

And, have u seen the airplane? I bet it's an easter-egg! Maybe an interior joke...

[disdathit]

its fairly nice. I thought the guy was gona be trying to avoid attacks from the clouds rather than the shadows of the clouds??!!??

The graphics are nice, but direction and idea are pretty boring. On no! the shadows are getting closer to the mercedes!!!!

[fr3drik]

disdathit - Ever saw the Nike commercial where a girl is only running in the shadow? ;)

[Silvermyst]

Spirit is a telecine machine for transferring film to video....:)

Anyone know what the music is? Someone mentioned Rammestein, but whats the track called?
That's "Mein Herz Brennt" from the "Mutter" cd :)

Very nice ad. I really wish we had more quality commercials here in Canberra. We got the PS2 Mountain one though, so my hopes are high :D

[manditri]

Hmmm...
Gr8 Idea but not so gr8 application...well atleast the clouds dont justify the 8 months in making...I kinda got bored half way of the movie...dunno maybe I was expecting a lil more FX...after all its for mercedes...but still a good job..,maybe will look better in a movie theatre... :thumbsup:

[fr3drik]

Leonard, I tried sending you a PM, then an email... but without succes, so here goes:

Hello Leonard,

I just enjoyed reading through the Mercedes/Mill article. Love it, don't stop doing these coverages, eventhough this one was pretty small! :) They are very inspiring! I feel I have tons of questions I'd like to ask the production team.

I've always been on the stake out for articles where film is being used, then converted to video (adding vfx/3d/animation) and then back to film. It would be really cool to see such an article at CGTalk I think. Just a wish/suggestion ;)

Keep it up!

Regards,

[percydaman]

I agree with the great visuals and the rather bad plot. I kept wondering why he felt the compunction to keep dodging the shadows? Some sort of obssesive compulsive disorder? Anyways I kept saying to myself, just drive through one of the shadows, youll see nothing happens, and you can drive on your merry way...

[Self-Designer]

What's not understood? The driver likes sun and doesn't want his car to get wet, and it took time till he recalled where's the button which closes the car's roof ;)

[disdathit]

I agree with the great visuals and the rather bad plot. I kept wondering why he felt the compunction to keep dodging the shadows? Some sort of obssesive compulsive disorder? Anyways I kept saying to myself, just drive through one of the shadows, youll see nothing happens, and you can drive on your merry way...
hahaha. BLATANTLY. what is the plot/premise?? thats so funny. i thought i was the only one thinking like that

[i12805]

A dedicated cloud website, outlining every setting used, was created purely to see the development of each cloud render. This meant that everyone involved could track the development of each 3D cloud.

does anyone knows what's the url of this site?

[creative destructions]

Reminds me of this. Looks very similar.

http://www.cgnetworks.com/galleryimages/46597/01_b.jpg

[disdathit]

A bit random, what IS that exactly???

Is there any reason for showing? It does look similar, but so do a lot of other things.

[bluemagicuk]

Reminds me of this. Looks very similar.

The creator of that image posted it here a few months back.
It does look similar concept wise.

As for the comercial, I would love to hear how it was made and more about
which shots were cg exclusive and which included live action and cg.
I thought it was great.

[anopheles]

firstly I love the CG .... i have to love the CG cause this is a CG forum!
secondly mercedes is a german company!!

[DEVARSHY]

This similarity is still distant, Check my post earlier regarding The ILM short WORK IN PROGRESS.

[LiQ]

It bored you? It only went for 1:30 and was packed with great driving.

Anyhoo I'd like to see more about the making - perhaps they could release the settings for the cloud gods:thumbsup:

[opus13]

No doubt, Very well executed.
Kudos to The Mill on that.

But for people who have seen the ILM short

WORK IN PROGRESS (http://www.ilm.com/insideilm.html),

this is nothing new.
If Im not wrong, Ryan Church did the concept design for the clouds in that short.Such eerie simililarity can be attributed to anything but coincidence.

Wonder how concepts reach the stages of approval and completion without people knowing the real source of the concepts.oh you have got to be kidding.

do you really think that this ad was some sort of knock-off of an obscure short or a one-off painting? just becuase they both contain cloud people?? thats like saying that because ansel adams took black and white photos of nature, everyone else is just copying him.

folklore and mythical tales have alluded and made direct reference to deities in the sky for ages! this is nothing new! this ad is just a play off of pop-mythos, and nothing more.

[Atwooki]

dramatic lighting :shrug:

[DEVARSHY]

ILM ? Obscure??

I think we need to redefine the meaning of renowned.
Sadly I'm not able to post a capture of the short, Or you would've seen the similarity yourself.
Gods in form of clouds, among clouds,...Engaged in combat in the sky!
How blatant can you get??

You Must see the short.

[PixelShader]

ILM ? Obscure??

I think we need to redefine the meaning of renowned.
Sadly I'm not able to post a capture of the short, Or you would've seen the similarity yourself.
Gods in form of clouds, among clouds,...Engaged in combat in the sky!
How blatant can you get??

You Must see the short.
Opus is right. The concept of gods battling in the clouds has been around for thousands of years through Greek and Roman mythology (and probably prior to that through folklore).

Much of the art in ILM's Work In Progress short would have been inspired by many sources, and it does not surprise me that the whole idea of god's battling in the clouds has been used in many artworks, including Work In Progress. The similarities will always be striking. No-one is copying anything from anyone, it's just a play on an idea that's been around for millenia. You are sadly mistaken to believe that ILM's idea for god's in the form of clouds engaged in combat in the sky is original.

Geoff

[jaygee]

that was SO COOL! and the music was excellent - and of course the driving too. i want that car. :D

[jaygee]

hmm anyone know what music is in the ad?

[ThirdEye]

The music reminds me Puff Daddy's version of "Come with me"

...The Led Zeppelin - Kashmir ripoff/cover?

[Marsinfur]

AWSOME IS WHAT I WOULD SAY
"THE MILL" always rocked with Quality FX and i love them ~

[ambas]

cool car :D

[Alan Daniels]

does anyone knows what's the url of this site?

Yes, absolutely! I'd love to see how they pulled off the look of the ad (even if, like some others here, I found the overall plot to be a bit dull).

Also, since they mentioned that some of the shots in the ad had over 100 compositied layers, I'd love to see exactly what those layers where. Sort of a snapshot into the "making of" the ad. Would help me learn a lot more about real-life compositing work (I can never seem to find enough discussions breaking down how truly complicated shots were made).

[The-3D-Data-Labs-Guy]

This is just unbelieverble.. truly amazing..:love:

[davidsloss]

I think it's naff.

Please...angry/determined looking white guy driving away from the terrible rath of a big white cloud...do me a favour.

The effects are nice though.

[Matt]

That sounds an awful lot like EVANESCENCE doing the music for this commercial...

What do you think?

[stallion151]

That's "Mein Herz Brennt" from the "Mutter" cd :)

Very nice ad. I really wish we had more quality commercials here in Canberra. We got the PS2 Mountain one though, so my hopes are high :D
maybe you guys should read before you keep posting!



people from canberra are always right. ;)

[jaygee]

dammit! i KNEW it had to be rammstein!

[Grubwyrm]

That sounds an awful lot like EVANESCENCE doing the music for this commercial...

What do you think?How about..... no?! Try reading. It's Rammstein, from "Mutter", released 2001, so, maybe EVANESCENCE sounds an awful lot like RAMMSTEIN...

What do you think?

[t-man152]

that was awesome, very cool, amzing, *add phrase of astonishement here*

[creative destructions]

I can see more abuse of the new font system in the near future.

[dudders]

i saw the tv version last night it was shorter, works much better

[Matt]

Grubwyrm, watch the personal attacks man.

It sounds like some stuff Evanescence did in 2000. This is pretty much the style of every one of their songs, except the guitar is a little more powerful in this piece.

I searched for 'music' or 'song' on the page, using ctrl-f earlier before I posted that, and nothing came up.

Evanescence is working on a new album, and material is slowly starting to surface. They've got a good marketing team, as they've been used in a lot of different products, so it wouldn't have surprised me.

[Hugh]

Yes, absolutely! I'd love to see how they pulled off the look of the ad (even if, like some others here, I found the overall plot to be a bit dull).
I'd imagine it's an internal website - websites are a great way of showing internal information - I can't go into too much detail, but I've been working on a few projects over the past six months that have internal website front-ends...

[percydaman]

ever get a cramp in the muscle of your jaw? I just did...man it hurt...

[mattclinch]

Great work again... congrats to The Mill

Whats the exact name of the track from Rammstein's Mutter album?

EDIT - nevermind...i found it. Called "Mein Herz Brennt"

[WhItE CoFfEe]

Sweet!!!!!!! A very cool commercial! Was the idea and story from the director? I like when the guy is being chased. I wish I could have a SLK too. hehehehe!

[Spc]

WOW.
Very nice commercial.
I think that every commerical should be something special like this one but as we know 98% of todays commercials are anoying and lame.

:bowdown:

[rexfang]

Wow,,,,pretty cool cloud effect...man...

:thumbsup:

[marmphi]

Very nice commercial, i dont understand the story but i like it too much. Anyone knows how the almost 360 shot were shooted?
Nice work :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :scream:

[SFG]

That was awesome! Rammstein's "Mein herz brennt" fits it perfectly. Good car, good music. Why dont they more commercial's with those combinations?

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.