Here’s a dirty little something we created for Todd Strauss-Schulson’s latest video on atom.com.  It’s a Virtual Threeway porno website featuring comedy duo Evan & Gareth.  It was our job at Gloo to recreate the look of an authentic porn site and then time all of the mouse movements and clicks as the video progresses.

The best part of the job was creating all the smutty ads on the page.  It required lots and lots of research, more research than we normally put into recreating graphics.

So, please keep that in mind if you ever need smutty ads plastered around your website… we can do it at Gloo!

Evan & Gareth recommend that only ladies view this video as it contains REALLY filthy language and situations.  However, it does not contain any actual pornographic images (so you’ll have to go to that other site you visit when mom’s not home if that’s what you’re looking for).

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!

FRIDAY MEGA VIDEO MOVIES MADNESS!!!

Most young guys know what it means to "tame a cougar" or go "cougar hunting", so in that context, an explaination is not really needed when I say "Dragon Slayerz" (except maybe that its spelled with a "z" at the end because it looks cooler).  This awesome short film by director Todd Strauss-Schulson stars the hilarious comedy duo Evan and Gareth.  The FX aren't heavy in this one, but  they are there.  Most of them are small and subtle, but keep an eye out for the opening title and the lightbulb.  Both were created and animated in Maya.  The old people are all entirely real though... in case your were wondering.

Dragon Slayerz has done exceptionally well since its release last year and has recently been made an official selection in the LA Comedy Shorts Film Fesival (April 15-18, 2010).  So, if you are in LA on those dates, make sure to get some tickets to the fesival!

Here is a little test video of the title about half way into the project...

SURPRISE!!!!!!!  IT'S RETRO WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!

Well, I guess it's not much of a surprise really.  Retro Wednesday has become a beautiful staple of the Gloo website.  Nothing like a little nostalgia for that mid-week pick me up.

The history of music video production continues with our latest blast from the past courtesy of Gloo's very own Rob Fresco!  This is one of at least two videos that Rob did for Luba.  I'm hoping he digs up a copy of the other one as it's my very favourite Luba song of all time, but I digress.

The coolest item about this video is that Rob STILL has the balloon from it.  It's in his garage and sadly, I have yet to see it.  Someday.  

Check out the crazy outfits when Rob pans across the crowd on the ground.  That's what your parents were wearing 25 years ago!  Wild stuff.

Anyhoo, for your viewing and listening pleasure, here is Luba.  Stick with Gloo!

FRIDAY MEGA VIDEO MOVIES MADNESS!!!

This one goes back to the summer of 2008 when I first got involved with College Humor.  I was working in Hong Kong and looking to move back to Canada and start my own company.  My good friend, Director Todd Strauss-Schulson (who I always seem to talk about in my blog posts) got a gig with College Humor to do a comedy series with Comedian Dan Levy for a Mountain Dew Campaign.  "The I Have To Go In A Minute Show" is a sort of Talk Show/Man on the Street show condensed into 2 or 3 minute episodes.  Todd and Dan shot 40 episodes in something like a month.  It was insane.  Crazy!  When I told him I was venturing out on my own and looking for some work, he threw a couple episodes at me to do the Visual FX for.   The hardest part of it was keeping up to their insane schedule.

So, in about 2 days, I was able to pump out the graphics for this one.  One of the graphics is a diagram which I created in layers in Photoshop and animated on with masks in After Effects.  The other shots are the penny falling from the Empire State Building.  I modeled and animated the penny in Maya, and then composited it into After effects.  The penny was quite simple to build, but the texture and bump maps were what took the majority of my time.

And for those of you wondering (and a surprisingly large amount of people are)... no, a penny will not kill you if its dropped from a building and hits you in the head.  Well, maybe if you were looking up and you are one of those people who always has their mouth open and the penny went right down your throat.  Maybe then.

Anyways, enjoy!

WOOOO!!!!  RETRO WEDNESDAY!!!!!

Here's another blast from the past courtesy of Gloo Studios' very own Rob Fresco that I remember enjoying as a kid.  It's hard to believe this video is over 25 years old.  It's hard to believe that I'm so old!  Retro Wednesday seems to have turned into the history of music video production, but for now I LOVE IT.

"Black Stations White Stations" is by a band called M+M, but you may better know them as Martha and the Muffins (who are famous for the fantastic "Echo Beach" which has now been sampled for some rap song that I'm pretty sure will be a big hit this summer).  I love this song too, and the visuals were pretty innovative and fantastic for the time.

While Rob was shooting, he was having a problem with the upside down room.  What they did was attach a chair and table to the ceiling and then secured the actor sitting in place upside down to watch the band on the ceiling (actually the floor).  The problem was that the actor's face would quickly turn red from the blood rushing to his head.  Rob then came upon an ingenius solution...which you'll have to figure out by watching the video!

The song was popular even after 1984 ended and I'd like to point out that it predates Lionel Richie's "Dancing On The Ceiling" by at least two years so Lionel, PAY UP!!!!  (Just kidding, Lionel.  You've already given us so much.  You awesome.  Please don't change).

Boys and girls of every page,
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Click below and you will see
This, our vid for St. Patty's eve.

We can assure you we put more work into the effects for "The Nightmare Before St. Patrick's Day" than we did into that lame excuse for an opening poem.

It's a coming of age story following Jack, a young boy with a chip on his shoulder who gets lost in the big city. After getting into some hilarious hi-jinks, and meeting some friends he'll never forget along the way, he learns that life isn't just about Halloween. It's about beer.



If you missed the effects, then we did our job. If you didn't, go along with it for now. There were a few scenes shot on blue screen including the opening shots in the forest and the shots on the rooftops. We did a little rig removal here, a little rotoscoping there, and a lot of tracking.

What's this?! Oh, it's raw footage. Nifty.


We also took care of the digital color grading. While unconventional in stop motion, the entire piece was shot "day for night" (using more light when shooting, with the intention of darkening it down to night colors in post) so it was a pretty tall order matching night colors shot to shot and getting a juxtapositionatingly bright look for the indoor shots. We like to think we succeeded. We also like to think about who would win in a fight between Billy Zane and Carrot Top (the new and improved version) so that might not be saying much.

Since the launch of 'Die Hardly Working' our latest Visual FX extravaganza for collegehumor, the media world has been buzzing about Gloo Studios.  Online news agencies everywhere have been publishing about us, and now the Vancouver Sun has written a feature article about Gloo (including a snappy photograph of Jason, Mike and I).

Here's a list of some of the articles we've found so far.  We'll try to update this list as we find more articles - so please stay tuned!

As of March 12, 2010

Vancouver Sun
MSNBC
Yahoo! Finance
Benzinga
ABC
CBS

RETRO WEDNESDAY!

If you check out Rob's bio in the "Who We Are" on this site, you'll notice that this video is mentioned as one of his select credits.  Makes sense, as it's awesome and was nominated for a Juno Award in addition to winning a Black Music Award in 1983.  It was one of the most memorable and influential videos of its time, paving the way for how Canadian music videos are done today.  So personally, I think Nickelback should give Rob some thanks if not some cash for his hard work.

On a side note, for some reason there are actually two videos for this song.  I only mention this because the guy who did the other one was one of my profs at the University of Regina many years ago.  Small world, eh?

RETRO WEDNESDAY RETURNS!!!!

I always loved this video when I was a kid and I still love it now.   What a great song!

Why is it on the Gloo Studios site?  That's because it was directed, shot, and edited by none other than Gloo's very own Rob Fresco.  This is one of my personal favourites of his videos, and it's one of his too.

Here's an interesting story.  Initially, the creative was to shoot on the 401 with a limousine and cars and stuff like that.  Everything was booked to go and set up but the night before the shoot, Rob woke up in a panic with a realization that everything was all wrong and this was not the way to go.  Everyone was called in the morning, plans were rearranged, and they shot at a subway station instead.  Believe it or not, the shoot took only three hours.

I love it when Rob calls me, not only because he's a great guy but also because I've set this song as his ringtone.  Makes me smile everytime.

Check out his cameo at the 2:10 mark (He should be easy to spot.  He's the guy with the camera in the middle).

Gloo Studio's Mike Ritchie and Director Todd Strauss-Schulson discuss the process of making "Die Hardly Working".