CADILLAC - NEW CTSA beautiful car running through an ice city, the fastest man on earth as the main talent (Liu Xiang), a kick ass director of photography plus world class directors from London.
Above : Early sketch design of the ice city
Below : Pictures of the final output : The first picture shows the car composited in the CG ice and the CG environment.
The second picture shows the car, shot static on white background in studio, running in the CG environment.
The shooting was done in Shanghai. It wasn't easy... Shot in a very big studio during three days - and almost three nights -.
There was a minimum of 50 persons on the set, due to Liu Xiang as the main talent. It was very hard to do the shooting in these conditions.
Most of the shots were shot with a static car. This way the lighting was easier to control. Later on, we had to track the car, erase the static wheels and replace them with CG rotating wheels. We also had to composite CG reflections moving on the surface of the car, to enhance the motion. Using compositing tricks and masks, we manage to completely blend the CG reflections with the car and get 32 bit reflections with all the dynamic range. This way we could get nice motion blur and depth of field.
Below : The DOP looking at the first shot of the 15s commercial (the car in the ice cube).
We did many designs, as at the beginning the director's idea was to have the car in a kind of icy cavern. The agency wasn't really going for this idea, and as the project went, the design progressively evolved to be a huge stylish titanium hangar. The main idea that kept going through the process of the commercial was "crystal sharp" or "diamond cut".
Below : Early designs of the cavern.
Even though this project was very hard and exhausting, I learn a lot with the contact of many talented people. The most interesting was to discover the DOP's techniques to light the car, that I'm now using as CG lighting technique.
The commercial as been on air during the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.
Above : Early sketch design of the ice city
Below : Pictures of the final output : The first picture shows the car composited in the CG ice and the CG environment.
The second picture shows the car, shot static on white background in studio, running in the CG environment.
The shooting was done in Shanghai. It wasn't easy... Shot in a very big studio during three days - and almost three nights -.There was a minimum of 50 persons on the set, due to Liu Xiang as the main talent. It was very hard to do the shooting in these conditions.
Most of the shots were shot with a static car. This way the lighting was easier to control. Later on, we had to track the car, erase the static wheels and replace them with CG rotating wheels. We also had to composite CG reflections moving on the surface of the car, to enhance the motion. Using compositing tricks and masks, we manage to completely blend the CG reflections with the car and get 32 bit reflections with all the dynamic range. This way we could get nice motion blur and depth of field.
Below : The DOP looking at the first shot of the 15s commercial (the car in the ice cube).
We did many designs, as at the beginning the director's idea was to have the car in a kind of icy cavern. The agency wasn't really going for this idea, and as the project went, the design progressively evolved to be a huge stylish titanium hangar. The main idea that kept going through the process of the commercial was "crystal sharp" or "diamond cut".Below : Early designs of the cavern.
Even though this project was very hard and exhausting, I learn a lot with the contact of many talented people. The most interesting was to discover the DOP's techniques to light the car, that I'm now using as CG lighting technique.The commercial as been on air during the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.