Week Two
- gracieszymanski04
- Sep 17, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Nov 11, 2024
Daily logs arranged newest to oldest.
9/22/24
Post shooting our live plates, I've been focusing on the shaders for the project. I am continuing to use Redshift Standard Material in Houdini.
Liquid Caramel Shader
As mentioned before, the biggest thing with this shader is the subsurface. It has to look clear when thinly gliding through the air but thick when thick. To get a better visual, I downloaded a free liquid model to test the shader out on. I also added some speckles of white in the caramel to mimic the slight bubbles and sparkles that occur in the caramel.
Current settings:
Chocolate Shader
For the chocolate, lots of the references I was looking at were more liquid chocolates. Reflecting now, I think I need to change the roughness and IOR to look more like chocolate truffles rather than chocolate syrup.
Current Settings:
Cookie Shader
The cookie shader is in pretty early development. I started putting together a bump map with multiple layers of noise to create a realistic crunchy cookie look. The next think I want to add is cracks in the bump map.
Current Settings:
Plastic Pint Shader
For the plastic pint, I played around with it for a while until I remembered the thin wall setting, then it all started to come together. The biggest thing with the pint is I also have to add the logo texture onto the pint model before it can be complete.
Current Settings:
Brown Plastic Shader
The brown plastic shader was one of the simpler things. The biggest thing I will be adjusting is the roughness and IOR when I put this shader on a pint lid model. It has the slightest bit of subsurface to really add to the shader as well.
Current Settings:
Overall Shader References:
Lastly for today, here is our current shot sequence put together after shooting our live plates, with updates FX and shots:
9/21/24
Today was our first shooting day! I think my group feels pretty good about how the day went. We spent a lot of time on set focusing on lighting, as the mentors told us to do. We also collaborated with other majors at SCAD today, including performing arts and photography.
Compositions
We decided on doing a CG background for our first shot as our attempts to make the composition more interesting in real life did not work out. For our other shots, we decorated the kitchen with various props to add pops of color to create a composition with more depth less flat. For instance, we added a fruit bowl with pops of red from the apples to make the kitchen feel less like a set. Another decision we made was to edit out the sink in post because of its position in the island. No matter where we moved, the sink ended up being too in the way or taking over the composition. In scenes with the refrigerator, we made sure that you could not see the bottom freezer in any of the shots in order to create the illusion that the left side of the refrigerator was a freezer. The actresses hair and wardrobe were curated together based on the aesthetics of Talenti gelato and the color palettes we are going for in our ad.
CG Lighting Prep
For each lighting set up we had in a shot that was going to have CG elements, we made sure the make lighting diagrams of the full scene to better reproduce the same lighting in Houdini. We measured camera height and wrote down all attributes as well for each shot in order to better integrate the CG elements. Drew took multiple HDRIs throughout the filming process from a 360 camera and using the fish eye lens.
Shot One Variation Tests:
Shot one was our shot that we kept coming up with different ideas in order to better create a seamless story. On our shooting day, we decided to completely shoot two variations:
The first variation includes the actress hearing her stomach growl. She physically acts out signs of hunger and then begins to daydream about the gelato ingredients.
The second variation (preferred) includes the actress scrolling on Pinterest on her computer. She then sees an ad for gelato. The gelato ingredients then swirl out of her computer screen and begin flying around her head.
Shot Four Test:
Another big test we did was for shot four. We wanted to have the ingredients glide through the air towards the refrigerator but also glide closely past the camera in the process. While going over possible options to whip the camera across the kitchen, Drew came up with the idea of taking a fisheye shot of the kitchen and then using that to create a CG camera that moves through the scene. We shot both variations and will be seeing what works best/what is possible.
Performance
The actresses performance is a key part to our ad. We often took several takes of a shot with different levels of emotion or different types of performance. On set, Aaron and I really directed the actress to get the look we wanted for each take.
Laney on set, about to take our enjoyment shot
9/20/24
I've officially started working on the main shaders for the project using Redshift in Houdini. I've spent most of my time today playing around with the caramel liquid shader. The sub surface on it is very important to make sure that the caramel can glide through the air and look a little transparent. I've been tweaking for hours and hours and feel like I need fresh eyes to really make improvements. I also think I need more than a shader ball to text the material out so I can see how it will appear on a liquid item.
As for the gelato, I've just begun creating the texture map for the shader. I am using Talenti reference but I also need to keep in mind that the gelato flying through the air would not be as stiff and rigid but rather creamier and more like a milky consistency. My biggest focus moving forward is going to be how to blend those two together.
9/18/24
Today was another brainstorming day before our shoot day. I've officially gone through the SCAD office and booked our actress Laney Voyles to do a Saturday shoot and a following Thursday shoot for any reshoots we need to do after receiving mentor feedback.
Our class went to the LED volume stage today and though we aren't going to be using it necessarily for this project, the trip did spark the idea to do a CG background for the shots that need a more interesting composition.
Furthermore, as we prepare we are coming up with more and more options for why our main actress starts to daydream of gelato. A big idea I came up with today is a shot where she is working and listening to music and then an Italian sounding song comes on. This song is what inspired her to start dreaming of gelato. This idea would definitely require a strong collaboration with the sound design department. We have also now secured a photographer for our shoot day to get some beautiful hero shots of the gelato for the end of our commercial.
9/17/24
Today we had out first project presentation with out mentors at the Mill and were given feedback based on our proposed pitch. This was our feed back along with feedback from other groups I felt was very relevant to us:
From the trailblazers group -> mentors said to ensure that each individual part of the trail mix stands out rather than looking like a “waterslide”, this applies to our gelato layers
Emphasized to us the importance of lighting on set the day of filming because CG will be completely based on that. We should do some lighting tests before final filming.
Emphasized the story aspect of it, warned lots of groups about the connection from one part of the story to the next: why did this appear? why is that there? where did that come from?
Emphasized the enjoyment shot!
HDRI is super important for us and this project
Make sure to experience all the different ingredients-> important for our layer shot
Remove everything you can and keep what is important elements of the story
Preplan for shooting and preplan for compositions!!
In addition, we had a SCAD writing professor join into the call to give her feedback as well. She specifically talked about how it can be tricky to begin an ad with a character being bored or having a negative emotion since viewers quickly become disengages.
Based on all this feedback, here's some things we are considering or adjusting before filming. First, we're are going to rework our beginning shot to have a better story. We want to answer the question of why the main character begins to think of gelato rather than it just popping up around her. We have a few variations of this in mind that we are going to shoot including: the character has a growling hungry stomach, the character gets an ad on her lap top for caramels or chocolates, the character googles where she can get a sweet treat or sweet treat ideas. In addition, we plan to really emphasize the shot of the character eating a spoon full of ice cream at the end. The mentors emphasized the importance of shots like these so we will make sure the acting is on par.
Based on professor feedback, we also want to take more time with out compositions. We plan to each bring props to add to the kitchen we are filming in to make the shots more interesting rather than feeling stale. In addition, I want to make sure we pay careful attention to camera angle and so forth on film day to try and create more interesting compositions.
Lastly, to prepare for filming. I put together a pdf to help with our shoot day including a shot list and breakdown, our actress, our reminders, a prop checklist, and an equipment checklist in order to keep myself and the team on track on shoot day.
Our present day to shoot is 9 am this Saturday, September 21st at Min's apartment.
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