SCAD X The Mill - Week 1

SANM 560 - Fall 24

9/15/20242 min read

The beginning of the journey!

​I joined the team which will use Unreal for the most part and Houdini for VFX. I got an opportunity to experience virtual production using Unreal Engine as well as understand the Houdini and Unreal Engine pipeline.

Team Trail Blazers: Duck Sandy (RT Textures), Soi Park (FX), Wyatt Clark (RT Production), Yilin Zhao (FX)

Prompt: Food and Beverage

After several brainstorming sessions, we decided to create a Trail Mix commercial.

Must-haves:

  • One or more close-up shots focusing on details

  • Live action/live-action plate incorporating DMP

  • Incorporate one or more of the following:

    • Paradox

    • Illusion

    • Forced perspective

    • Elements interacting with food

    • Morphing food

And here is the storyboard that we created!

The first, second half, and third scenes will be virtual production and the rest of them will be done fully virtually. The park and the space will be our background settings. My part in this project is making a Nut Asteroid FX that is spinning around the trail mix package.

Down below are references/mood boards for our project.

Tasks for next week:

  • Test the Houdini to Unreal Engine pipeline for the FX

  • Create the asteroid FX in Unreal Engine using Niagara System