JBL "Ear of the Tornado" (2012)

Whoah. Psyop took a close look at a CGI tornado creating a uproar of animation and audio with a dissying display of instruments flying by. Pretty awesome.

---

“Earlier this summer, Psyop was approached by Laurie Irwin, Executive Producer at Doner, who described a project they were developing for JBL,” says Psyop Creative Director, Anh Vu. “Doner Executive Creative Director, Murray White, had a concept for JBL’s second cinematic branding spot that would fully envelop the viewer. He wanted people to witness the birth of a natural phenomenon and vividly experience the destructive sounds of mother nature.”

“We were aware that we needed to communicate a real narrative even though we were going for a photoreal look,” said Psyop Creative Director, Eben Mears. “The spot had to be artful and carefully finessed chaos.”

An FX-intensive project, “Ear of the Tornado” tallies around 70 million particles from start to finish. “The choreography and animation of the flying and crashing objects were all designed with particular attention to the rhythm for the sound design,” explained Effects Technical Lead, Miguel Salek. Psyop collaborated with Skywalker Sound to guarantee the 5.1 mix of the audio was as impactful and engrossing as possible.

“It really was a unified team effort,” applauded Psyop Effects Technical Director, David Barosin. “We had a great compositor in charge of the complex and vast number of passes, and the lighting and rendering were all masterfully carried out by our team.”

Agency: Doner
Agency Location: Southfield, MI
Agency Creative Director: Murray White
Agency EP: Laurie Irwin

Production Company: Psyop
Creative Director: Eben Mears / Anh Vu
Lead Technical Director: Dan Gregoras
Psyop EP: Lydia Holness
Psyop Producer: Ave Carrillo / Erik Gullstrand

Designers: Anh Vu, Lauren Indovina, Naomi Chen, Eunice Kim
Storyboard Artist: Robin Nishio
Previz: Michael Shin
Animators: Anthony Travieso, Ryan Moran, Dan Vislocky, Chris Meek
Modeling: Dan Fine, Thomas Smith, Todd Daniele
Rigging: Zed Bennett
Tracking: Joerg Liebold

Effects TD: Miguel Salek, Dave Barosin
Lead Lighter: Jonah Friedman
Lead Compositor: Nick Tanner
Compositing: Thomas Smith, Adam Flynn, Matt Hanson

Sound Design Company: Skywalker Sound
Sound Designer: Steve Boeddeker