Meet the Team - Senior CGI Artist, Kyle Grace

Q: What’s your favourite advertising / marketing campaign and why?

A: The First is “Those who can; Teach” - A government funded campaign to encourage new talent into the teaching profession.  Heartfelt interviews with famous sportsmen and artists regarding their influential teachers. It was simple, powerful and well shot.

The Second is “Good things come to those who wait” – Guinness. Their brand is strong and their adverts are engaging, I am yet to see a bad representation.

Q: What do you wish you had designed / invented?

A: 28 hour days would be a great invention.

Q: Any websites or design magazines you use for inspiration?
A: CG Architect, World Architecture News, Digital Photographer.

Q: Is there a piece of technology you couldn’t live without?

A: My Wacom. It’s the key tool of any good retoucher or CG artist.

Q: What’s the best job you’ve ever worked on?

A: Make’s Grosvenor Waterside. We produced several key images and a matched CG animation into a helicopter based footage.

Q: What makes you laugh out loud?

A: Any surreal British comedy, from Monty Python to Eddie Izzard.

Q: Describe your perfect weekend?

A: Any music festival – a weekend of Music, Beer, Beards and Badgers (You need something to talk about at 3am in a field).

Q: If you had to sum yourself up in 140 characters Twitter style, what would you say?

A: I like to spend a lot of money on beer, fast cars and women. But as I’m not George Best, I’ll just squander my time and money on music and photography instead.

Wanted: One Talented 3D Artist!

Assembly Studios is an award winning multi-disciplinary design agency. Our creative CG department works with the wider studio to deliver a diverse range of content for print, web, interactive and animation.

We are on the lookout for a talented experienced 3D Artist to join our London studio. 3D Studio Max, VRAY, Photoshop and After Effects skills are essential, as is experience with animation, compositing and post-production. We need great team players, able to work on multiple projects simultaneously, who are passionate about CG, very creative and diverse in their skills sets.

If that sounds like you we would love to hear from you! Please send a C.V. and showreel / portfolio to info@assemblystudios.com (6MB Max)
Click to visit the Assembly Studios website.

iPhone Travel Photography... Matt in Mumbai...

Mumbai trip 2011 - UKTI mission to Mumbai reveals a buzzing economy and lots of opportunity for us Brits to export... The last few months have seen me travelling a lot as we help boost our UK workloads by expanding into new markets. Trips to Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East have proved fruitful, so when I was invited to travel to Mumbai as part of a 10 man delegation organised by the international Dialogue Group, I decided to take the plunge and see how much further the Indian economy had moved since my last recce in 2009.

Equiped with nothing but an iPhone to document the trip - here's a taste of what went on...

A Beacon of Good Design

We have just completed work on a full marketing campaign for a large commercial building located inside Moscow's Garden Ring. The name 'Lighthouse' and the logo are inspired by its prime location and the spectacular panoramic views you get from the development across Moscow.

We developed the typography and colour palette to reflect the modern approach and direction of the development, the integrated mark in the logo 'O' symbolises an open approach and a seamless extension of the building into its wider context. We really enjoyed working on the project and we hope you enjoy the results!





Assembly Studios Creates New Sting and Website for Abu Dhabi Media

We have just completed work on an exciting new project for Abu Dhabi Media, who commissioned us to create an animated sting and website to coincide with the launch of a new brand identity.

The sting was inspired by Arabic calligraphy and the colour palette of Abu Dhabi Media’s ident, which is revealed in a series of sweeping strokes in a rainbow of colours that form the Arabic characters. The sting was produced in full HD for use in a variety of different media, and features on the website homepage.

The Abu Dhabi Media website is a fully content managed, bilingual and accessible suite of web applications, developed and deployed by Assembly Studios’ in house team, which worked internationally, collaborating with Abu Dhabi Media’s own server team and site designers, Brand Faith.

"We had a fantastic website launch" said Colleen McMillen, Director of Corporate Communications and Publicity at Abu Dhabi Media, "Assembly Studios did incredible work in a short amount of time. We are so pleased with the site and the sting, both of which allow us to effectively communicate our new brand identity."

Shaikha Al Shamsi, Associate Director of Corporate Branding said, "The new site and the sting clearly showcase the vibrancy of our new brand. We really enjoyed working with everyone on the Assembly team and appreciated their utmost dedication throughout the project."

The animated sting and website are now live at www.admedia.ae

When Jon met James (Cameron, that is!)

3d Masterclass with James Cameron and Carlos Saldanha
Abu Dhabi Media Summit

Jon Wells, our Creative Director in Abu Dhabi, was lucky enough to be invited to a 3D masterclass with James Cameron last week, by one of our clients, Abu Dhabi Media. The invitation followed our recent work on their new website and animated sting. (Have a look - http://www.admedia.ae/)

James Cameron was joined by Carlos Saldanha (director of the Ice Age series and the upcoming film Rio) and Jim Gianopulos (Chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment) to deliver the special masterclass, held at the auditorium of the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

James Cameron spoke about reactions to Avatar and how indigenous people around the world identified strongly with the movie and its overriding message. He showed behind the scenes clips from the film to demonstrate how ‘performance capture’ is so much more than just ‘motion capture’.

Carlos discussed the incredible hard work, dedication and time that goes into today’s animated 3D films, not only on the Stereo 3D aspects of it. He showed clips from the making of RIO, his soon to be released S3D animated film.

Both James and Carlos agreed that S3D by itself will not “make” a film. It’s the idea, the story, the acting and the directing that makes a compelling S3D film, as it does any film.

So, all in all, an incredibly inspiring and educational morning!

Friday 18th February – (Kiev)

After validating the visa story by trying to speak to various Ukranians on the flight and arriving through passport control with a warm imperial feeling in my stomach - I was struck by the distinct difference to Moscow: even less English advertising, less English spoken and much, MUCH cheaper. Not being stitched up by the taxi driver seemed a little easier to navigate too – or perhaps I was and I didn’t know the difference due to the contrast in prices… I’ll no doubt find out next time.

The project we’ve been asked to have a look at is a really interesting one, which has much the same sensitivities that a central London planning application may face. In the heart of a cultural district, there are opportunities to create an intervention between old and new that hopefully, if we do our job correctly, will engage the local community, provide a dynamic civic space and also create much needed grade A office space in the centre of town.

It’s true what they say about Kiev, it’s a fun city with lots of natural beauty… The architecture is typical Russian fare, but there is an element of style and grandeur that is more compacted than in Moscow and the hills make it much more photogenic.

Friday night passed uneventfully as it is a difficult gig to get anywhere where no English is spoken and all the signage is in Cyrillic.

Had a brilliant Pulp Fiction moment however, when all attempts at McDonalds (this was the best attempt at an eatery that wasn’t based on low quality meat… sorry not fair as Ukranian food on the whole is excellent, but you try ordering from a Russian menu when your Russian doesn’t extend further than“OK” “Perfect”   “Please” “Thank You” and “One for the Road…”). Anyway, attempts to order a “quarter with cheese” went through four members of helpful staff until jubilantly, the manager appeared and said in a broken Russian-American accent “Ah, you mean a Royale with cheese”... John Travolta is popular everywhere… genius.