SCAD x The Mill Week 5: More Camera, More Environment, and Posters

This week I put a lot of energy towards reworking the retro environment. The shopfront photogrammetry is integrated with textures, the rest of the building has been more carefully constructed using Quixel assets with a heavy focus on relative scale. Rather than protruding towards the hero object, the corner now has a wide bevel which is adorned with a wall of posters that I’ve modeled as well as a ladder. This is inspired by the 1940s Italian film “Bicycle Thieves” as a way of lending the shot a sense of visual interest that’s informed by a plausible motivation, as well as to dynamically patch up seams between assets and less detailed areas of the building.

These posters are all part of a UV quilt and have a temporary checkerboard texture with identifying letters for the purpose of laying out designs as a single image file in the upcoming weeks.

Another note we sought to address this week was the jagged transition between shots 3a and 3b. We chalked this up largely to a difference in camera positions between files that we failed to notice during rendering. Unfortunately, towards the end of our work this week, we had some serious difficulties with the render farm that delayed our work by several hours. As a result, we’re using an outdated placeholder render of shot 3a which cuts out 50 frames early, regrettably producing a less-than-smooth transition. Again, this is resolved within our files, we are simply missing frame that proved too troublesome to regain within our time frame this week.

I’ve also addressed the camera notes on shot 1 and 2. Shot 1 now holds for longer at the beginning and end of its movement, and shot 2 is more centered, with the headlight now crossing the center of the frame, slightly to the right.