Bo Saris 'The Addict' by Tim Fox
Sam Hill - 6th Sept 2013
Tim Fox brings his knack for colourful, impressive computer animation to modern-soul singer Bo Saris. Filming Bo on a treadmill, Tim motion-tracked his performance using Xbox Kinect - causing a bit of a moral rumpus in the process (see Tim's account below). Then he morphs, moulds and generally messes around with Bo's anatomy and surrounding environment to create a beautifully rendered, very bright psychedelic trip.
It's fascinating and certainly eye-catching, stuff.
Tim Fox: "The title instantly led me to pursue the theme of drugs, but I didn't want to go the grotesque way of Trainspotting and Irvine Welsh. Instead we treated it with a nod to the psychedelic and Alice in Wonderland, by sending Bo on a tea-induced psychedelic acid trip.
"It's actually based on a dream I once had where I awoke in front of a selection of brightly coloured cups of tea, with each one sending me on a different sub-dream within the dream. My original nightmare also featured a cameo from Rolf Harris, and in retrospect we're pretty lucky we didn't contact him to be involved!
"We shot in a green studio on a green treadmill, and painted Bo's face black with white lips. With the addition of a pair of white gloves I inadvertedly started a heated debate on racism and minstrels within management, and we opted to give him a more purple hue.
"We also used an Xbox Kinect to capture motion data for use in some of the scenes where Bo becomes a fully animated, rigged character. The Kinect gave us basic tracking points around the body which we could use to create a simple skeleton structure to animate around.
"It has the added advantage of giving us realistic 3D data - the motion tracking in after effects for example, would only give us 2D data and feel quite flat. Unfortunately, we didn't count on the Kinect being renowned for not detecting dark skin! So we had to do a seperate pass at the end of the day with Bo 'unpainted'."
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Sam Hill - 6th Sept 2013
Credits
Featured here in the credits?
Production/Creative
- Director
- Tim Fox
- 1st AD
- Tom Mackay
Camera
- Director of Photography
- Dan Peters
Wardrobe
- Stylist
- Mark Anthony
Choreography
- Choreographer
- Liara Barussi
VFX
- Post Producer
- Tim Fox
Commission
- Commissioner
- Jeni Raskin
Sam Hill - 6th Sept 2013