Tag: matchmove

Commercial: TAB (Rollercoaster)

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TAB_thumb_1
Click to play video.

The ad was shot on several locations; an amusement park called Rainbow’s End, in Fort St in Auckland’s CBD, and in the company’s car park set up for greenscreen.

One of the more exciting bits of this project is that we employed a drone (carrying a Blackmagic) to shoot the rollercoaster when it was doing its slow climb. I helped advise the drone pilot and cameraman on the storyboarded shots. It was quite cool to see a custom drone in operation, to hear the pilot talk about his work, admire the tech and engineering.

So when it was time for the CG to start, it felt a bit boring.

Same ol’, same ol’, as I always say. Yup, someone modelled the rollercoasters; yup, someone modelled digital doubles; yup, I matchmoved; yup: I texture projected a set; yup: they pixel-fucked every frame in the name of Continuity. “Give me a reflection pass, please!” I’ll give you a reflection, all right.

A job is only interesting if the subject matter is worthwhile, or if it’s a technical challenge. Apparently, this was neither. But something’s got to pay the bills, eh?

Commercial: Massey University (A Perfect Example)

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Like the name, this commercial is a near-perfect example of this work thread: minor work that tempts itself to be cast aside for being inconsequential. And yet, added together, everything is given its proper recognition.

I contributed to the library scene in this commercial. The car driving through the library is obviously real (is it? :) ), but the greenscreened car would not have appropriate reflections of the environment. So, I went to the shoot to take HDR spherical panos of the library, where the car was supposed to drive through.

Back in the studio, we were given the car’s (dodgy) CAD data, which I repaired extensively. Using other reference photos of the library, including the footage, I recreated the library to cast proper reflections on the cg car. I matchmoved the footage, and further hand-tracked it for pixel-accuracy, rendered the reflection pass. Leoni comped the final shot.