We tried to fix some of the issues on the previous videos. There’s still a bit of an issue with the AiShadowCatcher but we have cancelled it out more. We haven’t fully matched the cameras, this will need to be adjusted. We also need to set up roto masks for some elements (the sink, the table, etc.). The next major steps will be to animate the car and have the timing set up for the camera movements in relation to the car.
This is a first render of our set dress. There are a lot of issues we noticed but we wanted to test using zdefocus which isn’t really working here. There’s a couple issues as well. There’s a flash of red, this is a dropped frame issue. Then there’s an issue with a dark line on the glass bowl. This appears to be an issue with the camera projection and AiShadowCatcher, it goes black off of screen and then reflects into the glass and the metal on the mixer. We just wanted to get a sense of the set dressing but we will probably aim to do our shadows in a separate pass, but this will be something we will refine as we go.
I scanned the egg carton for a background asset. It will need a bit of cleanup. I’ve lowered the poly count and switched the detail with a displacement map.
Notes:
Shots are good. Don’t need to re-shoot
Start placing objects and laying out scene
Reserve shading for once we have a sense of all the objects we want. Don’t want to shade something we don’t need
Tracking:
I’ve started tracking our shots
This one tracked fairly easily and will be a still shot so it’s not quite as troublesome.
This was a first track that was somewhat steady. There was quite an issue with the large highlight on the table.
Here I refined it and it is in a much better place. It remains to be seen once the objects are in if it has tracked properly.
The shot going down the counter was easier to achieve after having done the reflection earlier so this seems to have turned out well
Some stuff I want to work on still is the spatula, the handle is too thin and the top is too shiny. I also want to work on the shader for the butter. I was attempting to have the butter inside of a wrapper but was having a lot of issues with the translucency and subsurface in the folds. Currently it is just a single mesh with subsurface applied. Overall the Butter is also a bit too perfect right now, I feel it needs to be roughed up a bit.
I started working on an egg and texturing it for our scene. In the process I wanted to texture paint in Mari but the reference image I was using was not perfectly lit so getting the details was proving troublesome. As a solution I recalled a process called high frequency separation that is used by retouchers for skin retouching. It uses a process of separating out the high frequency detail from an image and then mixing that on top of the low frequency detail. So in this case I wanted to remove the overall light change which was low frequency detail. So I set that to a solid color and then overlayed the high frequency detail on top giving me a much more usable texture to paint with.
This is the original image
This is the de-lit image
I began processing the data from the shoot, this included the footage as well as the photo scan and the HDRI’s. This photo scan is done with low settings. Once the footage is confirmed the settings can be raised to get more detail.
I began cleaning up the bottom and top of this HDRI in Nuke. It still needs a bit of work and the tripod needs to be removed as well
This HDRI I haven’t had the chance to cleanup in Nuke but it has been stitched.
For our second shoot I made a more accurate previz and also worked on a story board. I placed a story board of our reference first so that we could more closely understand the shots
We were discussing how to include cakes. The quality of options online are kind of lacking so I tested scanning a cupcake. This was shot using an iPhone just to test. It seems to be producing good results so we may go the route of including them as a scan. Still need to experiment with delighting. I’m going to look into using an HDRI to delight but may use a tool I discoverd for unity here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo96vqMqnwA
36 mm lens
20 mm lens
It was mentioned to our group to find out what the lens was for our reference, the Canal Kitchen advertisement. Looking at the behind the scenes there were some previz shot inserts that included the lens data in the top left. One shot used a 20 mm and the other used a 36 mm. I own a 25 mm lens that allows us to get very close, so not quite 20 mm but should allow us to get close. Since we’re shooting with a Sony A7RIII we can shoot at a super 35 crop (1.5X) this will allow us to get close to the shooting angles in the advertisement.
Here are the notes from Wednesday:
Do not use the shot with a person in it. The house should be empty, this will make it feel more about the car and make it feel more professional.
Re-shoot!
Maybe the car should circle around the table
Car could jump the sink or go around the sink
Try to utilize the space more. Everything happens too quickly.
Clean up background plates, clean the set so it feels clean and professional.
Give the props intention. Why is it there, whats the story?
If it’s a party make it feel like one
Bonus marks do see through objects
Maybe shoot without any objects on surfaces. Shoot with a macro lens, and set dress with CG objects.
Add more cake making assets
My look dev turntable. I set the background to not cast shadows but its causing odd reflections on objects since its showing the lights coming through it. I’ve tried putting another plan underneath but that produces odd results as well.
Material settings
Rough tracking test of shot 01.
I added in the HDRI of our space as well as worked on the door material and car paint. I also replaced the chrome on the logos on the wheels since after further review it seems that those are the same white as the wheels. I also replaced the white metal on the mirror so as to match the customization of the car that we are going for as a team.
Notes from first review session:
The biggest note for the look development side of things was to fill the space with objects so as to break up the space and ground it. It was recommended to either go the route of adding objects on set, and rotoscoping around them or to add in CG elements. We are planning to do a mix of both. It was also mentioned to either do CG set extensions or to shoot everything close up and fill the space with objects. We have decided to do the later.
This is a rough cut of what we shot. It has no color correction.
This is the HDRI shot on location. There are some stitching errors. I will look into fixing those once the shots are confirmed
Rough 3D Scan of space taken on location
I’m not quite happy with the white car paint. It’s not feeling quite right. I’m also not quite sure what the material on the door is. It sometimes looked like a brushed metal, but at other times it almost looks like a grey rubber.
I began roughing out some of my shaders for my turntable. I’m having a flickering issue so will have to look into where that’s coming from. I’m not quite happy with the car paint shader
I was having an issue with my rig that when it turned around 180 degrees that the wheels would start going backwards, It managed to work within -90 and 90 degrees but it broke once it turned past that. I managed to fix it by adjusting the expression from sine to cosine.
As part of our pitch my group and I wanted to do some PreViz with the car we aim to use (the Renault Twizy). Since I had some experience with rigging I took on the job and downloaded a model from TurboSquid. Sadly it wasn’t properly set up for animation. It was a single solid mesh that was triangulated so I split the mesh and then recombined and quadrangulated the mesh. I then built a simple rig that allowed me to control the basics no matter where I turned it. I then did some PreViz, as well as some tracking tests using the rig. I also shot and HDRI for the light rig.
Rig allows front wheels to be rotated and has an expression on the wheels allowing them to rotate as the car moves forward. It also works while turning.
Test render of car using 360 HDRI
360 HDRI used for light rig
Playblast of PreViz
Shot test as well as tracking test to see if shooting at this scale is possible and if it can be tracked. It turned out successful except for slight camera issue about midway through, with some refinement to the track this shouldn’t be an issue.
This is my lighting reference, the artists are William Eggleston, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Alex Prager, Gregory Crewdson, and Holly Andres.
These were some of the ideas I came up with before meeting with my group:
Tesla advert using Tesla in orbit. Space man floating in space is looking at something, says “it’s beautiful” cuts to him looking at Tesla. Maybe supernova in background? Talking to buddy inside spaceship who’s maybe fooling around. “Tesla, go places).
Child sees car then we see his imagination about the car. Cut to scenes of it maybe underwater, in space, candy land. Then cut to adult standing there and say something like “awaken the imagination”.
Two medieval knights about to face off on horses. They charge at each other and a car rolls in with another Knight in it. They both concede.
Use animal analogies to describe car and put it in those situations (roar like a tiger, swift as a gazelle).
Kid playing with old fashioned toy car. Sends it rolling. It transforms through the ages at the end it gets picked up by and adult. Maybe cuts to them holding it out in front of them and then focuses on real car outside in driveway. To save in detail do it like a toy car (use blend shapes to pull it off). Choose car that has lasted for a long while. Show different years going by in the background. (Perfection can always be improved) Effects would focus on transition.
Viral style video. Maybe invisible car that becomes visible when a guy goes and sits in it. Maybe make it be a fake device. Maybe it blows up a car out of it. Shoot it all “one shot” on an iPhone. Put a lot of compression to feel more real? This reduces requirement of high quality camera or camera work. More budget friendly. Could have a couple different ways of appearing.
Car tentatively passing through museum. Auto braking prevents it from breaking and priceless artwork while car without auto breaking breaks all the priceless artwork.
Car speeding through a misty forest, driver assist keeps occupants safe. Effects could include leaves, dirt, and mist.
Fill car with an odd object as a way of showing how much space it has in it. Such as fill it with hot dogs or the like.