Week 2

Team Members

Mia Esparragoza (3D/Look Development)

Zane Kidwell (Lighting/MP)

Yilin Zhao (FX)

Soi Park (FX)

Veronica Ramirez (Compositing)

Objectives

1. Tighten Story + Improve Narrative and Visual Flow

2. Elevate Quality of Lighting References + Look Development Mood Board

3. Researching Live Action Shoot Locations

4. Look Development

5. Refined Previsualization

Pitch Feedback From Mentors

1. Story + Visual Narrative

- Story is interesting + good concept

- Reveal logo towards the end of the advertisement, at the beginning creates a boring shot

- Connect both environments visually (e.g. Including natural elements in opening shots)

2. Camera + Composition

- More dynamic + interesting camera movements

- Ensure the product is the main visual focus, composition is allowing for other elements to steal attention

- Consider using dolly equipment for live action shots

3. Lighting + Look Development

- Need stronger visual references that truly fit the story and branding vibe for luxury + jewelry

- Hero lighting reference needed for visual cohesion

- Last shot needs intriguing and visually interesting colors + lighting

Week 2 Tasks

1. Tighten Story + Improve Narrative and Visual Flow

After many discussions as a team about what was best for the story, we decided to change the abstract space location for more context and more cohesion. The new environment is the desert, a common habitat for snakes and aesthetically matches with our inspiration brand Bvlgari. The way we will connect the two environments is by utilizing the disintegration effect of the dragon statue, the particles will look like sand wipe in front of the camera to act as the transition from live-action to CG. The sand particles will transport the ring on a journey through the abstract desert of elegance and luxury.

2. Elevate Quality of Lighting References + Look Development Mood Board

I had initially gone ahead and collected some preliminary lighting references based on the tree rolling movement reference shared by Kyle. Zane Kidwell then elevated and improved the lighting references based more on Bvlgari's aestheti, luxurious natural moods, and desert photography. 

I then improved the quality of my texture references and narrowed in on specific stones and tree types to find good reference photos for each of our textures, making sure to always align with Blvgari's colors and products.

Order of Images: 

Preliminary Lighting Mood Board

Look Development Texture References Board

3. Researching Live Action Shoot Locations

As a team we discussed possibly shooting at the SCAD Film Studios backlot, but availability scheduling has not made it possible. So we have decided to use one of SCAD's academic buildings, since they have architecture and window designs that could work to sell the first environment's museum vibe. We were planning on shooting this weekend, but since the weather was no in our favor for lighting purposes, we were unable to. Our teammate Veronica Ramirez went to some SCAD locations for research and took some photos of possible shooting locations. 

Scouting done by Veronica Ramirez

4. Look Development

I am in charge of the Look Development for this project, so I collected references and created the shaders needed for our commercial. At first, the references I collected were based on our previous storyboard, once we removed the falling leaves shot and redirected our aesthetic, I revised my texture references to align more with our revised concept. 

Based on Professor Gaynor's informative presentation + lecture, I knew the industry standard of what was needed from the Look Development department's first presentation. First I began working on the material quilt, then on the closeups of each shader and further improving them, and then I applied the shaders to our models and modified accordingly. Then finally I created the turntables of each model utilizing all the shaders.

First Pass Materials - Quilt and Close Ups

Diamond, Gold, Juniper Desert Tree, Polished Granite, Jade (Clear Center)

After receiving helpful feedback and suggestions from Professor Gaynor and my fellow teammates, I made improvements and modifications to the shaders and made modifications to the reference photos for the wood and jade shaders.

Second Pass Materials - Quilt and Close Ups

Diamond, Gold, Juniper Desert Tree, Polished Granite, Jade (Clear Center)

Professor Gaynor suggested I bevel the edges of the diamond model, but the topology unfortunately made it very difficult, so I found a new model and attempted the beveling. The two results to the left of this text are the original diamond model with no bevels, but topology that allows for a more realistic diamond look, and to the below that is the new model with the bevels, but with not as successful reflections.

Then I carried on with applying these shaders to our models and rendering out turntables for each model. The Wood shader is used on the tree branch for Shot 2 (Ring Rolling on Tree Branch). The dragon statue utilizes the Polished Granite shader on the main body, and the Jade shader for the sphere in its hand. The Bvlgari Serpenti Viper Ring model utilizes the Diamond shader on the gemstones and the Gold shader on the body of the ring.

I unfortunately was having color management/color space issues when exporting these turntable EXR sequences as MP4 videos, explaining the strange gamma ratios, I am currently working on resolving this issue as soon as possible.

Material Turntables

Diamond, Gold, Juniper Desert Tree, Polished Granite, Jade (Clear Center)