Week 2: Previz Edits & Lookdev
1/13/25 - 1/19/25
Mentor Feedback
This week, Tuesday, our group was able to pitch our commercial idea developed in the prior week to our mentors at Harbor, allowing them to see our concepts and provide feedback. Here were our notes from that discussion:
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Kyle:
- Emphasis on nature will be key for this commercial, shots with pyro or 'unnatural' FX may need to be rethought
- Use sun as backlighting, using product to cover it from camera, as to not outshine the product
Justin:
- If we are using flower petals as transitional wipe, make sure to integrate in other shots for consistency
- Use lower camera angles to make the product feel more epic / significant
Billy:
- Useofficial marketing photographs by Chanel, average together their colors, use these as color scheme
- Make sure to use brand identity throughout development
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Addressing Feedback
Firstly, one of the notes provided by Justin included altering the camera angle for our last shot, displaying the entire product and serving as a conclusion to the commercial. By dropping the camera lower and tilting it upwards, it creates the feeling that the audience is looking up at something grand like a statue or monument; the low angle essentially brings more purpose and power to the perfume. In addition to that feedback, our FX team (Wei and Eva) suggested to keep away from objects touching the surface of the water. Instead of creating a liquid simulation to have the water subtly flow, we can use an animated displacement for the material to save time. This, however, results in water that will be unable to interact with surrounding objects. Here I have showed some different iterations of the last shot, however the strongest is option 3 for its lower camera angle.
Last week's closing shot
Shot 7 option 2
Shot 7 option 1
Shot 7 option 3
In addition to making additional proposals for our previz composition, our team was also tasked by our mentor Billy with gathering around 20+ images from Chanel's marketing and photography in order to establish a better grasp for the brand.
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When looking for Chanel's advertisements, I also wanted to include a broader timeline of their marketing as opposed to searching for only the most recent advertisements. While we of course want to make our commercial up-to-date with Chanel's current branding, I felt it was important to look through No.5's evolution through the years.
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Some of the things I noticed during this search was how minimal their photography is, making sure not to distract from the product while maintaining its visual appeal. The "props", so-to-speak, are purposeful and made to accentuate the perfume, tastefully and elegantly.
HDRI & Shader Lookdev
Another task I began to tackle this week were the shaders, specifically for the perfume bottle. However, when building shaders, it is important to have both neutral studio lighting to see the true colors of an object, as well as accurate lighting to the scene, to make sure the shaders can be used across a variety of scenes/shots. Luckily, weather permitted, my group and I were able to get to Tybee Island (roughly 30 minutes from campus) to capture HDRIs for our CG integration. In order to match the aesthetic of Chanel, I photoshopped the HDRs and remapped the colors, achieving something more monotone but golden.
With our golden HDRIs now developed, I was able to continue developing the shaders more accurately to our scene lighting. This week I wanted to tackle the perfume bottle, which is composed with roughly 6 different materials: 3 variations of glass, the paper label, the golden metal nozzle, and the perfume itself. Below I have shown the current state of the shaders, using the three HDRIs from the shoot, though I still need to add more subtle details and generally establish better realism for the glass and perfume.
Lastly, I have included a few closeup shots of the shaders. And that concludes week 2!
