Bruton Stroube

Behind the Scenes: BSS Holiday Greeting 2011

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Happy 2012! We had a ton of fun over the holidays and hope you did the same. Our 2011 Holiday Card may have given you a glance at a few of our shenanigans. Spiked punch, Santa Claus, raining money, police and a very large horse all made their way into the card. Here are some BTS cell phone snapshots of the fun (borderline absurd?) production. And yes, the horse was real and had a comfortable 4" clearance under the doors.

Our holiday card this year was inspired by a project we just completed for our friends at The Alchemedia Project which just went live the other day, and you can check it out here.

More pics and a quick video clip after the jump.

"I think I'm getting cops and a pony so work those into your matrix." -Matt Siemer
"Also, don't forget about the gorilla suit." -Brandon Voges
"Liquid spraying out of nostril formerly corked with marshmallow?" - James McKenzie

A full 360° view of the blank room:

Click & drag to see the blank canvas:

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Brainstorming

Just before remodeling began on the new Motion department workspace, we had to break it in the only way we knew how... with a little festive soiree. We started with a rough diagram of where to setup the party elements.

The setup:

Preparation:

Happy Holidays!

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Merry Holidays and Happy New Year from your friends at Bruton Stroube! We decided to host a little soiree in the new motion building before we started construction. Click the image below to see what kind of mischief we got into. Enjoy!

Our card this year was inspired by a project we just completed (but can't show yet!) for our friends at The Alchemedia Project...stay tuned for a blog post about it soon!

Previous years' Holiday Cards:

2010 Holiday Card

2009 Holiday Card (2009 BTS, 2009 Testing)

Now Playing: Eckert's Holiday Spot

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Happy December folks! It's time to break out the hot cocoa, kick back and enjoy your favorite family traditions. We recently completed a TV spot for the great people at Eckert's Orchards thanks to our good friends over at Rodgers Townsend. Enjoy these 15-seconds of snowy goodness, then head on over to Eckert's to create some family memories this holiday season.

A few Behind the Scenes snapshots after the break.

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Behind the Scenes Snapshots (iPhone):

The Modo Moto

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Keeping in tune with all things fast, Roger has been cranking away on a new side project, no kickstart needed. A natural progression from his 3D Mach 5 Racer from a couple months back, this time Roger takes to two wheels in Luxology's Modo 501, a 3D modeling and rendering software.

Inspiration wasn't too far off as Roger is a motorcyclist himself. Added influence came in the form the music. The sounds of Queensrÿche flowing through his earphones, while balancing time between his computer and his garage for parts reference.

Detail shots and some early wireframe models after the break.

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And a few wireframe views of the early modeling stages:

Greg Stroube Nominated in Photography Masters Cup

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The nominees and winners were recently announced for the 5th Annual Photography Masters Cup, an International competition that honors color photography. Among the winners, Greg received Honorable Mention in the Food category for his Pasta image below, as well as nominations for 6 other images. We suggest taking a few minutes to browse through some of the winners galleries.

"It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 13,321 entries we received this year," said Basil O'Brien, the awards Creative Director. "Greg Stroube's "Pasta," an exceptional image entered in the Food category, represents contemporary color photography at its finest."

See Greg's other nominations (in the Still Life, Americana, Architecture and Nature categories) after the break.

Honorable Mention (Food), "Pasta"

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Nominee (Food), Italian Sculpture

Nominee (Still Life), Sugar Beet

Nominee (Americana), Hayfield

Nominee (Americana), Hired Man

Nominee (Architecture), Miami

Nominee (Nature), Isla

Mayflower "Delivered as Promised"

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We just wrapped a really fun shoot with our friends at Rodgers Townsend for Mayflower Transit. When they asked us if we could build an automotive wind tunnel in a tractor trailer, we said "Hell yes!" (and then we looked at each other and said "whaaaa?")

The concept was based on moving someone's career as opposed to the individual person. After some discussion, we agreed that the images needed to feel photo-realistic, with a bit of a fantasy flair. We accomplished the images with a combination of shooting the trucks on location, building sets back at the studio and a little pinch of 3D from Mr. Stagner (check out the post on his 3D Mach 5 here).

We were really happy with the outcome and had a blast shooting it. The other ads and some behind the scenes after the break.

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BSS Motion Reel 2011

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Happy October folks! This year is flying by...turn around twice and it will be time for turkey, stuffing and your crazy uncle.

We are pleased to present to you our 2011 BSS Motion reel— now 20% more reely than before! BSS Motion has been wicked busy and we have a bunch new work to share, so we decided to put this little diddy together. We'd also like to take this opportunity to give a huge Thank You to our clients and friends that we've had the pleasure to work with on these projects. Without your great concepts, vision and collaboration, none of this would be possible. It also wouldn't have been nearly as fun...we've had a blast.

PS: Keep an eye out on the blog, our Twitter feed and Facebook for fun updates and BTS of the buildout of our new BSS Motion space. If you missed the tweet a few weeks ago, we're currently designing and building out 5000 square feet of new space—which will include editing suites, conference rooms, an audio suite, and a snazzy new coffee bar. Mmmmmmm...coffee.

Stay tuned for more updates...but in the meantime, kick back, relax and enjoy the reel!

Go Speed Racer Go

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We had a special guest swing by the studio this week, and we had to grab a few shots of his ride. Actually our own Roger Stagner did quite a number in Modo 501, a 3D modeling and rendering software by Luxology. Not only is Roger head of our photo finishing department, but he's a talented 3D artist as well. More images of the process after the break.

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Roger started by referencing several sketches to begin the modeling process. After a combined 50 hours of on-again, off-again sculpting, the Mach 5 finally came to life.

An early wireframe view of Roger's exterior and interior.

And a few final renders before placing the Mach 5 into an environment.

The last phase required photographing the background environment for the Mach 5 to be placed into. Since most of us here have a love for shiny machines, we figured right outside our front door was the optimal place. In order to sell the effect, a 360 degree panorama had to be supplied in order to tell Modo what to do about reflections and light sources. We used a panoramic tripod head and a nifty bit of software called PTGui to stitch a series of 36 fisheye photos (12 HDR images) together to finish off the build.

The panorama used is a little disorienting... imagine unwrapping 360 degrees onto a flat surface and this is what it looks like:

The blank backdrops:

Nicely done Roger, now all we need to figure out is how to actually test drive this bad boy.

Are you ready for some football?

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Once again, we had the pleasure of working with our good friends at Fallon. They always keep it fun; and this time they brought along Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. The second-year sensation dominated these print ads for Charter Communications and even completed a 12 yard pass to Brandon...making him the all time leading receiver at Bruton Stroube Studios.

A few behind the scene pics after the jump...

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BSS Retouching Project

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I was asking for some input on an image I was working on the other day, so I sent it to a few folks around the studio. I got back several good suggestions, and most of them came in the form of a newly-reworked-and-layered Photoshop document based on the original image I sent around. This sparked a discussion that led to the premise of our new retouching project: what happens when we give a RAW image to a studio full of creative folks, no holds barred?

This happens.

See the full lineup after the break. [BREAK]