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This blog contains progress updates on the collaborative project I am completing with team Bytes over the Fall 2024 quarter. Team Byte decided upon creating a Angry Orchard Hard Cider Ad and to utilize software like Unreal Engine 5 for environments, Houdini for FX, Nuke/Nuke Bridge for Compositing, and to utilize the XR stage for a live action shoot if possible.
11/12/2024: Apologies on the delay with my blog updates! Coming into week 10 the team and I are excited to be wrapping up the project and polishing where we can. We have assembled our credits, rendered the whole thing in 4K and have a good portion of out press kit ready to go. in all, the adjustments and changes I have made over this last week include some changes to shot 3 and experimentation with shot 7/8 utilizing FBX camera track data from the XR Stage. I am out of storage space on my website so I will be uploading as thorough of a text description as possible.
Before I get into all that though, the shot 3 changes:
Updated lighting to match closer to shot 2
Rendered in 8K and down-sampled to 4K for sharper details
Rendered in EXR format for better control over color and value (previously rendered pngs for purpose of seeing the renders faster and with "accurate" color sooner)
Here is a link to the color corrected version of shot 3 (Color correction by Teammate Ben Jones!): https://youtu.be/v2-0w2Nigyc
Upon uploading this I noticed some strange jitter in the tree trunk and some areas of the grass in the video but I checked my raw EXRs and confirmed this is an issue with the video compression. This should be easily fixed with some experimentation.
Camera Track FBX Experimentation: The goal of this experimentation was to match the camera in Unreal to the recorded camera track data we captured at the XR stage so that we can modify the Unreal Environment however we want and then re-render and pull a difference mat to comp this new environment in. This would help us remove any flickering and moray effect that we experienced on the shoot day.
Upon testing there are a few things of note:
Record the camera root position! This is a necessity for matching the cameras starting position
Camera must be named the same as the recorded camera for a more seamless import (there is a check box to disable this necessity however I found it less reliable)
To import the data, right click the camera with a matching name in sequencer and click import, than select the desired track (we had 8 takes total for shot 7)
Keyframes may be shifted down the timeline in sequencer making you think there aren't any keyframes at all
From here the camera scaled dramatically and moved way off in the distance away from where the camera root was when we originally filmed on the shoot day
My teammate Ben Jones had helped me to figure out the usage of a absolute transform that can be applied beneath the track data to move the camera to the desired route position
The only issue left stopping us from utilizing this method is that it feels as it the movement has been toned down from what we actually did on the shoot day. I am still experimenting with this part but if we can more or less scale the keyframes data then we would be able to match the XR shoot angles and render a new back plate. Part of the issue as well is; by what number does this data need to be scaled?
11/3/2024: I have two major updates from this past weekend and following the Thursday work session with the team. In shot 3 I have adjusted the lighting to better match shot 2 and redid the glass material on the bottle following some suggestions made by my teammate Chris Hill. Aside from that I have added all the console variables I want Here is a link to the updated 4K render: https://youtu.be/zN6o8foE0XQ
We also have a new sound pass which can be found at this link, once again produced by Charlie Delatorre (Please note, this uses our video from week 8 and is not a visual reflection of our most up to date work): https://youtu.be/JbwU-u9imvA
10/28/2024: We just got a first pass of sound from our sound designer Charlie Delatorre. Here is a link to it below:
Some notes the team had are:
Music could be a little quieter
When going under the water muffle the music a bit
adding some impact sounds to the falling apples in shot 3
Foliage sounds: Tree branches moving in the wind etc.
Shot 7, music is a bit loud, not sure if there is a liquid sound effect currently
In all we are happy with this first pass and look forward to seeing the refinements made over the next week or so. We are especially happy with shots 1, 5, and 6.
10/27/2024: Team Byte has completed what is hopefully our final XR shoot following the feedback we received on Tuesday. Professor Gaynor had helped us to get in contact with Christos at the XR stage again for a reshoot on Friday (10/25) in which we spent approximately 2 hours attempting to troubleshoot an issue with out shadows. We could "go nuclear" with out lights and crank them to incredibly high intensities but the shadows would remain just as dark, this includes the usage of sky lights. In the end we added point lights to brighten the shadows individually which is not the best solution but given the time constraint, a necessary one. Ben Jones, our compositor, should have enough information in those shadowed areas to be able to color correct and adjust them accordingly without looking like a black hole.
Beside this, I have made a few adjustments to shot 3 to further refine the changes I made below. Aside from that I have updated shot 1's environment to address the notes of competing colors and such by placing a wooden cabinet Infront of the stove and modifying the stove geo to just look like a built in stove top in the counter. I also have two separate versions in which the fridge is moved or removed to be less distracting.
The material on the vent hood needs to be adjusted a bit still but beyond that, these have been passed over to Ben to be comped to see which looks better with the DOF applied as well.
10/21/2024: Some exciting updates this week with some major updates to shots 3, 7 and 8! We finished shooting shots 7 & 8 this Thursday on the XR stage with both myself and an Actor. My teammate Ben Jones has been working on converting this footage and choosing the best clips to use in our updated cut.
Shot 3 I have added in the logo to the bottle as well as an extra rim light linked to the bottle to help in stand out. I also shifted the position of the tree and stool to better frame the bottle. In addition to this I have learned a lot about physics simulations within Unreal Engine as well as the sequencer. I also learned how to use the plugin Easy Layout which just allows for easier facilitation of these physics sims. Here is an example of how I used this tool:
Did you notice that the fruits in the barrels were actually tomatoes this whole time? Using this plugin I piled up these apples and saved them as an instanced mesh so I could copy them and rotate them to other barrels. I then replaced all the tomatoes in the buckets. Beside this change I also added a few more dropping apples though I do want to stagger their drop times a bit more.
Here's the look of the shot at current:
10/15/2024: A couple of brief updates before class presentations today. Shot 4 now belongs to Chris so I have not made and update for that shot at this time. I do have an update for shot 3 however! Shot 3 now includes physics sims for falling apples which can be found here: https://youtu.be/_bdDDtPJukk
I plan to add a couple more apples being careful not to add too many for fear of distracting the viewer from the bottle etc. Speaking of the bottle, I am going to light link a rim light to it and add the logo so that the bottle will stand out a bit better than it does currently.
10/13/2024: Exciting progress coming into week 6! Team Byte just wrapped our load test and test footage shoot of shot 7 on the XR stage. below are a few images taken during that time:
(Had to get a picture in this pose, tradition)
I was responsible for creating shot 7's environment and modifying it accordingly during our load test. I also served as our stand in actor should we not locate a new one by this coming Thursday (our final shoot day). Ben Jones is responsible for editing our video and compositing so he will be creating an updated cut with our test footage to show on Tuesday. In all we had a successful load test though the 100 fps on my machine did not translate flawlessly to the stage. We had some minor fps issues but they were amended by optimizing the procedural grass maps, Redoing the lighting so it would not self conflict as much, and removing a few trees.
For Thursdays shoot: I am going to add a few trees back to the scene on screen left, and make some tweaks to the lighting.
Aside from this, I have an adjustment to shot 3 and then progress to come for shot 4.
Shot 3 will include some falling apples eventually but for now the focus is updating shot 4 and 7 as shot 7 will need to be done for Thursday and shot 4 has not had any significant updates over the past few weeks.
Assets for shot 4 are now collected! I am going to block in some of the branches and from there use the foliage tool to paint on little leaf sprigs etc. from there I am going to add apples manually.
10/6/2024: Coming into week 5 I've got some updates to share but first a quick recap of feedback. I have taken steps to modify shots 1, 3, and 7 as well as created an HDR within my scene for shot 3 which Raghav will use to render either shot 5 or 6. As mentioned above we were able to shoot in the green room and got our footage for shot 1 and a stand in plate for shot 7 till we can shoot on the XR stage hopefully in the upcoming weeks.
Shot 1 Feedback:
Remove cabinet from above fridge
Adjust scale of window
Move or remove the fridge as it should not be next to the sink
Shot 3 Feedback:
Add more barrels
Make the bottle more of a focus in the scene
Achieve a good sense of parallax via camera move
Add some more apples and such laying on the ground
I've taken steps to address the feedback in Shot 3 including adjustments to lighting and the sky as well as include a camera move and rim light for the glass bottle to try and point the eye to it. I plan to go in and add more barrels and apples to the scene now as well.
In regards to shot one, I'll be modifying the positioning of some assets as well as animating the camera to match that which we shot on Wednesday in the green room.
Here is some of the progress from shot 3: https://youtu.be/C-AEQKfHtss
As mentioned above, I am still planning to add more barrels and apples on the ground! I will have more to share tomorrow for shot 1, 3, and likely 7 as well.
9/29/2024: Post Hurricane I do not currently have much progress to show but I do have a list of feedback that I will be addressing for my individual shots. this feedback includes a couple main points and revolves mostly around the kitchen scene for shot 1:
Adjust the specularity of the cabinets
Make the cabinets a little bit less scratched/damaged
Add a window above the sink
Adjust the exhaust fan above the stove to be built into the cabinet
Aside from the kitchen feedback, Shot 3a is my responsibility and like discussed below this post, is going to be a mid shot of a stool, bucket and tree. Shot 4, after speaking to Chris, we both agree would be better to build our own "tree" scene to be able to fully articulate the branches and leaves how we want as well as use higher quality materials since it is a close up.
9/26/2024: It's a rainy day in Savannah as a hurricane (most likely tropical storm as it meets Savannah) is approaching. Team Byte has a few things we would like to discuss this Thursday to address the feedback we received on Tuesday.
Can opening shot is an improvement from the original shot
What is the purpose of the drone shot?
To help with establishing the environment
We have instead changed this shot to be a mid shot of the bucket/stool and bottle from shots 5 and 6 with the apple tree closeup from shot 4 behind them. This we feel better establishes continuity for these shots and also makes it so we transition from a wide/long shot, to a medium shot, to a close up.
Awkward progression of camera shots
as discussed above, we have modified our shots to better address this!
Shot 5's composition is off with a lot of negative space on screen right
This weekend we will get a temp plate to composite behind the bottle for better context of the shot
Potential adjustment to framing/inclusion of other props to address the framing feedback
Where is shot 6 taking place?
Our original idea is that the apples fall from the tree into a bobbing bucket. We have created a plate to comp with that better shows this idea.
We have also discussed the idea of this bucket being glass to better show the environment. My only concern with this is that a glass bucket on an orchard isn't exactly realistic.
Here is the above mentioned apple bucket plate, both in focus, and out of focus, as we plan to use heavy depth of field:
I also have an updated shot 1 environment that will be further adjusted after shooting our live action plate tomorrow (again we plan to use heavy depth of field):
Following all this here's what I still need to do:
Update shot 4 close up
Create background for shot 6
Update Lookdev to include more of the materials for assets I used
Shoot live action plate on Friday!
9/22/2024: Following our pitch last Tuesday team Byte received some amazing feedback and in all I'd say the presentation went well! The following is a quick recap of the feedback we received and how we addressed it through modifying our storyboard and shot environments:
Need more product interaction
Modified shot 1 to include an actor placing a can on a table and cracking the tab which then syncs with the camera motion to transition into the orchard. Shot 1 now takes place in a country/rustic kitchen which will be discussed more below.
We modified our storyboard so that shot 7 now takes place within the orchard environment and is a static camera featuring an actor pouring the drink into a cup, and then picking it up, placing a bitten apple and walking off frame, where we then reveal the product logo.
Why is there only a can in the beginning and then a can and bottle at the end?
We have now added the bottles into shot 1.
What is the significance of the living room scene?
We did not have a specific reason for picking a living room, we just thought it would be a place that the product may be enjoyed. The suggestion of a country kitchen environment makes way more sense in the context of the warm orchard environment we are transitioning to.
How can we incorporate more anger into the ad?
After conducting some additional brand research and watching all the available older ads we found Angry Orchard does not often include the themes of anger in their marketing despite the name of the product. Despite that, we are having the actor in shot 1 place the can in a sharp way indicating anger without making it the focus of the entire ad.
An Important Note regarding Shot 1 and 7: Shot 1 will now be shot on the green room stage so we can better conduct our camera move as we believe the XR stage does not fit our need. Shot 7 however, in its modified state, better lends its self to being filmed on the XR stage now that we include an actor and the pouring of liquid etc. something that would be harder to pull off on a greenscreen.
Here are my goals for the coming week:
Do a secondary lighting pass for both shot 1 and 4 environments
Complete the heightmap for shots 2 and 3
Continue work on materials
Continue work on set dressing environments, finalizing the environments
Here is what I have done since the pitch beside the above mentioned storyboard modifications that we as a team made:
Started blocking for shots 1 and 4
Conducted a rough first lighting pass
Began experimenting with apple tree assets
Conducted research in the XR stages policies and best practices, more to come on that as the team finalizes our intentions for the stage
Here is some of the progress I have with the blocking:
To do list for shot 1:
Continue set dressing
Once live action shoot is done, 3D camera track the footage and import it to UE5 to drive the camera movement
Modify materials
Continue lighting (needs to be a cooler tone)
To do list for shot 4:
Add a material to the ground
Create and add distant meshes in background
Continue working on lighting
Developing materials further
Camera and apple animation
Below is a quilt of the materials I am using in shot 1. I currently am having issues with animating the HDRIBackdrop to show the dynamic lighting but once the team and I trouble shoot that I will update this blog.
9/15/2024: After a few meetings over the weekend into today team Byte has created a pitch for an ad featuring Angry Orchard Hard Cider containing a total of 7 shots. below is the slides containing the synopsis of our story the storyboards, and our previz video.
We plan to transport the viewer of our ad into the world of the Angry Orchard orchards. Shots 1 and 7 are intended to be shot on the XR stage if it is available and will feature the canned version of our product which utilizes a orchard logo. Shot one will dolly into this logo and match cut into shot 2 which will be a replica of this logo with shot 6 similar but in reverse- a dolly out from the logo revealing our product sitting on a table when a person picks up the bottled version and leaves a bitten apple to match the bitten apple portion of the logo on the bottle/can.
In all we have the 2 XR stage shots (Shots 1 and 7), 2 FX shots (Shots 5 and 7), and then 3 shots completely within Unreal Engine ( Shots 2, 3, and 4).
In addition to the use of Unreal Engine, we are going to be using Houdini for the FX work and then Gaea for generating a heightmap to be used for the landscape for shots 2-4. To wrap it all up, Ben Jones is compositing using Nuke, and is doing additional research into the Nuke to Unreal bridge.
The shot I have been assigned primary on is shot 4, the close up of an apple that then falls from a tree. I also am helping Chris with shots 2 and 3, and Ben with the environment for shots 1 and 6 while he takes the lead on the XR stage side of things since he has some previous experience in this area. Below are the slides for all those shots excluding shots 5 and 6 which Raghav is the primary for. I am going to help Raghav with lighting and texturing in Houdini where I can but I primarily will focus on the Unreal Engine side of things.
For our FX shots in which Raghav is the primary, we plan to include fluid sims in the form of a splash on the bottle of our product and apples falling into a bobbing tank as pictured below.
9/12/2024: Team Bytes met yesterday (9/11/2024) to determine our product for this mock advertisement. We settles on 3 main ideas which we will choose from later this afternoon. These three products include, Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Minute Maid Products, or Popcorn. The project brief listed beer as an option/something that was desired so that is our primary product idea at the moment, unless concern is expressed over the alcoholic nature of this product in which case we will pivot to one of our other Ideas. Below is a brief over view of the reference board I have made, more images and reference to follow once we have solidified our idea.
The concept our team has decided on is "the life cycle of a product". We plan to somewhat depict the process in which the product is produced but in a visually pleasing and ad-ish manner. For the Angry Orchard we want to show an apple orchard and then in some way "juice" the apple and pour it into a new container and transition to our product. In the same vein, if we opt for the popcorn idea, we want to show a corn field and then have the popcorn pop off of the cob on the plant and fall directly into a popcorn bucket. We will upload some shot reference and what not once we solidify our product. If we can we also want to incorporate use of the LED volume so once we find out whether or not our class has permission to do so we will update our ideas accordingly.
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