ALIVE WITH TECHNOLOGY:
REVIEWING PHOTOREALISTIC
ROBOTICS
By RORY MCGREGOR
It’s likely that Citroen’s 2004 ‘Alive With
Technology’ campaign will ring a bell.
Directed by Oats Studios founder Neill Blomkamp,
the short featured a Citroen that realistically
remodelled itself into the form of a Transformers-
like humanoid, before busting a move to Les
Rythmes Digitales’ Jacques Your Body against a
hazy sunset backdrop.
The ad caught the attention of thousands even
in the pre-viral age – and in the process put cre-
ative studio The Embassy on the map as one of
the premier up-and-coming visual effects studios
in Vancouver – just a short two years after it was
founded.
The Embassy has since gone from strength to
strength. Its skill in photorealistic vehicle creation
has led to contracts with the world’s largest auto-
motive and transportation companies, but it has
26 • Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com
also resulted in VFX work on defining Hollywood
franchises like Iron Man and sci-fi blockbusters
from The Hunger Games to Neill Blomkamp’s
Academy Award-nominated District 9.
The team has also worked on explosive simulation
effects in Elysium; avalanches of evil attacking
snowmen for Nissan; and photorealistic jet liners
for Cathay Pacific. The slate of projects continues
to grow, and with it, so too does The Embassy’s
embrace of web-based review and approval solu-
tion Frankie.
With Frankie, Embassy VFX ensures its core cre-
ative skillset remains at ultra high-quality from
project to project.
HANDING CLIENTS A PAINTBRUSH
“For us, Frankie is a paintbrush that we hand to
clients, who otherwise might not express them-