Clear Takes Home Best Special Effects at MTV Awards

Soho-based Clear has won the Best Special Effects Award at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards for their work on the Queens of the Stone Ages GO WITH THE FLOW. Directed by Shynola through the Director's Bureau LA, video is set in a desert with trucks playing chicken while a party of sex, drugs and rock n roll rages. This is the second time in three years that Clear has won this award, previously winning for Robbie William's ROCK DJ. The awards ceremony took place in New York City on August 25, 2003.

For the video, the band was filmed against a greenscreen on the back of a 60s Chevy pickup. Both the band and the truck were painted in matte black-and-white to ease rotoscoping. The environment was completely built in 3D, with digital doubles of the band and trucks for the medium and long shots. Clear used REALVIZ' automatic tracking software, MatchMover Professional, to pull off the difficult work.

"The use of MatchMover Professional on this project was especially important, as Shynola provided all the 3D animation. However, they work on Maya, which we do not," said Steve Garrad, senior producer at Clear. "Nevertheless, we were still able to provide the tracks to them within the incredibly tight schedule. We are very proud that, as a London effects house, we have twice won the most prestigious U.S. music video award for special effects. It shows that our commitment to edgy, groundbreaking effects work in music videos as well as feature films and commercials is being recognized beyond these shores."

Founded in 1994, Clear is a vfx compositing and animation boutique. For more information visit www.clear.ltd.uk/.

Based in Sophia Antipolis, France, REALVIZ is a leading developer of image based creation software, with U.S. operations in San Francisco and a satellite sales office in London. REALVIZ' customers include Cinesite, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Bros Animation, Electronic Arts, Buf Compagnie and many others. For more information visit www.realviz.com.