SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — February 9, 2010 — Every year during the Super Bowl, global brands premiere commercials that showcase the best visual effects and animation in television advertising — for over 15 years, much of this creative work has been shaped with Digital Entertainment Creation software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). A majority of this year’s most popular spots, according to the USA Today poll, were created with certain Autodesk Media & Entertainment software.

“Autodesk software helps customers be more creative and efficient, and generate business,” said Karim Salabi, Autodesk Media & Entertainment vice president of marketing. “We congratulate our clients for such an impressive body of work in this year’s commercials and are thrilled that our 3D tools played a role in the annual ritual of Super Bowl commercial innovation.”

John Budion, director and visual effects supervisor of this year’s E*Trade commercials, said, “My Autodesk Flame expertise is really what gave me the opportunity to direct this high-profile campaign. The tracking, compositing and seemingly limitless features of Flame offered solutions for nearly every obstacle that arose and allowed me to bring the campaign to the next level.”

Numerous post-production facilities used certain Autodesk Media & Entertainment software to help create this year’s Super Bowl commercials (see Autodesk YouTube channel for links to these commercials):

• AXYZ had a very successful Super Bowl season with five Bud Light commercials created with the help of Autodesk Inferno visual effects and compositing software: “Stranded,” “LightHouse,” “AutoTune,” “Book Club” and “Asteroid,” the last of which also used Autodesk Maya 3D visual effects, animation and rendering software.
• A52 worked on two commercials that aired during the game: Honda “Squirrel” using a combination of Maya and Autodesk Smoke editorial finishing software, and KGB “Sumo” using Maya and Autodesk Flame visual effects and compositing software.
• Blur created an epic commercial for EA’s “Dante's Inferno” using Autodesk tools: Autodesk MotionBuilder performance capture software, as well as Autodesk 3D modeling, animation and rendering software Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Softimage with the Face Robot facial animation toolset.
• Click 3X created three spots for E*Trade: “Girlfriend,” “First Class” and “Tears” using Flame, Maya and Autodesk Flare, the creative companion to Flame.
• FilmWorkers Club created an ad titled “Fence” for Budweiser with the help of Flame, Smoke and Inferno.
• MassMarket created four commercials that aired during the game: “Awesomer” for Emerald Nut, “Forge” for Vizio, “Timothy Richmond” for Cars.com and “Game” for Snickers. All were created with Flame and Maya.
• Method created two comedic spots for Bridgestone tires: “Your Tires or Your Life” and “Whale of a Tale” using a combination of Flame and Maya among other tools.
• The Mill created “Boost Mobile Shuffle” for Boost with the help of Flame and the Budweiser “Bridge” commercial using Flame, Flare, Softimage and Autodesk Combustion compositing software.
• MPC used Flame and Maya to help create both “Sleepwalker” for Coca Cola and “Nightmares Never Sleep” for Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, Inc.
• PublicVFX created a 13 spot campaign for Hyundai, four of which aired during the Super Bowl: “10 Years/Favre,” “Luxury,” “Body Pass” and “Paint Sonata” with the help of Maya and Flame.
• Semerad created the McDonald’s commercial “Check This” with Flame, Softimage and Inferno visual effects software as well as Maya and MotionBuilder for pre-visualization.

Launching new advertising campaigns during the Super Bowl continues to be a top priority for global advertisers, and Autodesk tools help play an important part in the creation of their commercial campaigns. A recent study* concluded that two-thirds of the television-watching audience still remember their favorite brand advertiser from last year’s game, while only 39 percent remember who won the game and that three out of four are more likely to research or buy a product after seeing it advertised during the Super Bowl. Four out of the five favorite ads from last year’s game (Budweiser, Pepsi, E*Trade and Bud Light)* were created by Autodesk clients using a host of Autodesk tools.

* According to a poll of 1,000 Americans on consumer engagement in the Super Bowl conducted by advertising agency Venables, Bell & Partners.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software to help customers experience their ideas digitally before they are built. Fortune 100 companies -- as well as the last 14 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects -- use Autodesk software tools to design, visualize and simulate their ideas to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation for competitive advantage. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com .