Digital Domain visual effects supervisor André Bustanoby worked on several features while studying mechanical engineering at Washington State University. "During those summers I came to LA and worked on films like The Hunt for Red October and Look Who's Talking," recalls the First Boards finalist. "Even though I was getting a non-filmic degree, I was still very much doing real projects during college."

Previously, Bustanoby served as a mechanical engineer at Boss Film Studios working on features and numerous commercial projects. With the prevalence of CG, the studio's chief engineer shifted over to 3D tracking, motion capture and motion control. He joined Digital Domain as a performance capture supervisor before taking on his current role as digital effects supervisor.

"Pool"

The Iomega spot introduces "Fred," an overweight and ordinary guy floating on an inflatable chair in his above-ground pool. He is meant to represent a document on your computer. Seconds into the commercial, Fred is devoured by an enormous sea monster -- a computer virus. But that's not the end of Fred. Extending the metaphor, a back-up version of Fred appears in the pool and eagerly returns to his afternoon floating.

Traktor directed "Pool" out of Publicis & Hal Riney. Digital Domain's Piotr Karwas was the lead character animator and Katie Nook was lead compositor.

"The task was to create a computer virus," explains Bustanoby. "No one would expect this giant Jason and the Argonauts sea monster-squid-octopus to come out of a doughboy pool in someone's backyard. What could be funnier than having that as a visual metaphor for a computer virus that's attacking your files?

"We started with all kinds of references [for the sea monster]. I gave Traktor a palette saying here's what we've chosen as references. It was a menu according to which we could select color, shapes and textures. We started modeling the creature in Maya.

"It was then textured in Photoshop based on a still reference of some elephants shot at the zoo. We used their skin texture, which is cracked and wrinkled. We were able to bring that into Photoshop and then set up a textured shaded character that was rendered and lit in Lightwave.

"One of the critical aspects in addition to the animation and the look of the character was getting it to look as though it was actually in the pool and coming out of the water as if newly emerged. We used Maya particle effects to give us our CG water and that was a function of the animation. We used that in addition to 2D elements that were shot -- splashing water and dripping water -- all together that helped sell the fact that it was coming out of the water."

Challenges facing visual effects artists

"It's always a challenge doing this level of work with increasingly tighter schedules as well as just trying to come up with new and unique ways of telling the stories. For this project we had five or six weeks and a one-day shoot. We had a whole lot of setups to do, from close-ups of the actors to these huge wide shots and invariably shots will be added on set.

"What we're having to do is become more and more like a live-action unit and turn stuff around faster. We need to be totally ready on set to deal with any changes that might come up. What I'm doing a lot now is taking a portable NT or PC on set with me. I'll run Maya, I'll run a compositing system, I'll run tracking software while they're shooting the plates. I'll show the client/agency what the shot's going to look like based on the blocking of the actors and the composition of the camera. From character animation to editing to compositing, it's becoming much more a quasi-real time capability. We're taking the studio on the road so to speak and it's very, very helpful."