Week 3: Finalizing Previz, Lookdev Progress
1/20/25 - 1/26/25
Mentor Feedback
After our group presented our pitch last week, we were able to gather some great feedback on our previsualization and how to better communicate selling our product, Chanel No.5. Here were some of the main notes that I gathered:
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Hailey:
- Bottle and camera movement should be more dynamic and smooth
- In shot 5-6, the bottle rotation feels stiff
Allie:
- Keep consistent camera movements, consider the flow between shots
Kyle:
​ - Brainstorm new ideas for a final shot, keep away from using Chanel / other wording as it may be unnecessary
Billy:
- In the camera, place more emphasis on the flower- very macro to display details
- Remove spritz or other chaotic elements
- Emphasize elegance, keep colors somewhat muted​​​
Addressing Feedback
From what I gathered from the professors as well as our Harbor mentors, there was a lot of work to be done on our previz. The camera movements were a clear point of conflict, so I made it a goal to collaborate with my team and develop a new sequence. Below is the previz we displayed in the presentation, as well as the iteration I created with input from the group.
Here were the main changes shot by shot:
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- Shot 1 - slight change in composition with more of the driftwood asset in frame
- Shot 2 - switched to a wider angle camera close up to flower, allowing for better view of FX, as well as giving the sense of the viewer smelling the flower
- Shot 3 - change in composition and camera movement now not following the droplet to keep consistent, smooth movements
- Shot 4 - change in position of the bottle and droplet, allowing droplet FX to be closer to the camera, camera also more intimate with the bottle causing the audience to feel closer
- Shot 5/6 - smoother rotation, eliminating the 'stiff' feeling of the previous version
- Shot 7 - altered composition to emphasize parallax, as well as to extend the duration the viewer is seeing the product fully
- All shots: adjusted scale to compensate for real-world scale and FX
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With these changes, our group and professors feel more confident in the presentation of the product. I am excited to see what we can improve after our next meeting with the mentors.
Old Previz
New Previz
Transmission Depth & Dielectric Priority
In addition to the creation of the updated previz, I also needed to continue developing the shaders. This week, I wanted to begin developing the perfume liquid shader and the glass, and begin developing how the liquid will appear inside of the bottle. In the beginning stages, I extruded the inside of a basic sphere, then added a half-sphere mesh inside of this. I also created a few booleans inside to see what bubbles may look like as the liquid travels around.
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In creating these two shaders, I also read through the Arnold documentation on transmissive surfaces. While some properties of shaders are intuitive or easy to observe their effects, transmission has certain attributes that were unclear. The two main properties I studied were transmission depth and dielectric priority.
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When dealing with multiple overlapping transmissive surfaces, especially ones with varying IOR levels, it may be necessary to use dielectric priority. For example, in this case, the liquid is nested inside of a glass bottle, both of which have their own transmissive properties. In order to avoid artifacts or unrealistic refractions where the surfaces are interacting, you can create a sort of hierarchy of transmissive surfaces, causing the render to prioritize one versus another. In Arnold, a higher integer means a higher priority to render. So, in this case, we can set the perfume liquid to 2 and the glass to 1, telling the render that the liquid is inside of the glass.
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Autodesk's Example:
Blue 1 Yellow 1
Blue 1 Yellow 2
​Transmission depth relates to how far into the mesh the transmission color will begin appearing. In this case, the transmission depth will depend on the thickness of the liquid; having a higher value of depth will make the liquid appear colorless unless the liquid reaches a certain thickness, causing the yellow tones to only be visible in the deeper points of the mesh. Below are some tests with different transmission depths.
Depth 0.1
Depth 0.5
Depth 2.0
Depth 10.0
After adjusting the transmission color and depth, here is what I am left with:
With this updated shader, I then re rendered the perfume quilt. Below are two versions, one from last week and the current.
Old Quilt
New Quilt
