
Blackbird, a car rig that creates photo-real CG cars [video] - nvk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnBC5bwV5y0
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mattalbie
I work at a competitor to The Mill so I have a little insight into this
process. Ad agencies have grown accustomed to spending an enormous amount of
money on VFX to make the cars in their spots look as perfect and attractive as
possible (same with soda, people's faces, etc). They call this "beauty" work.
For high end commercials this single line item can be over $30k (though I'm
pretty sure The Mill charges more than I do). Most of the car commercials I do
end up with full CG cars regardless of what they shoot because 1 they want the
cars to look perfect, 2 they want to enhance the cars attractive qualities
beyond all reality, 3 they want to be able to control every pixel, 4 they want
to change elements of the car for different markets. That last one is probably
a big reason The Mill would invest this kind of R&D in the project.

Doctorpangloss's point about product placement is no small thing either. As
foreign markets become a bigger part of box office take being able to sell 5
different product placement deals in the same 20 shots is a big win.

~~~
jessriedel
Background from Wikipedia for others: "The Mill is a VFX & Creative Content
studio headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with three offices in the
United States... The Mill is usually well represented at the numerous
Advertising and Visual Effects awards ceremonies world-wide each year."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mill_(post-
production)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mill_\(post-production\))

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doctorpangloss
In case anyone is wondering why you would use a CG car instead of a real car:
The purpose of this vehicle is to allow large feature films to shoot with the
Blackbird and sell a product-placed vehicle in post-production to the highest
bidder. It's a brilliant way to maximize the value of the placement.

The Mill obviously doesn't spell this out in their press release. But this is
all about native advertising.

~~~
legitster
That might be true except cars have vastly different wheel sizes and
wheelbases. One video would only work for a single platform. Even then, the
company states that the rig is customized per car to get the ride height and
tire size right.

I think they use CG cars instead of real ones for the same reason everything
is CG: cost. It's cheaper to just rent one of these from a local film studio
than sending out a small fleet of actual cars to film in whatever salt flat
they are using this time. It also gives them more control of the look and
design of the car. Did you know that 75% of the items in an IKEA catalog are
CGI?

Also, I wouldn't be surprised (given the tight release schedule of some car
models and the secrecy around them) that this lets them film the advertising
of a car concurrently with the final production stages. They don't have any
cars coming off of the line to shoot with, so it's easier to rig up the
wheelbase (which is established early in production) and get the marketing
done concurrently.

~~~
justinator
> That might be true except cars have vastly different wheel sizes and
> wheelbases.

I see you didn't watch the video where they showed the wheelbase, wheel
sizes/design, width of the platform, as well as suspension tuning can all be
adjusted easily.

~~~
kerryfalk
Parent's point was that a single video couldn't be used to sell to multiple
manufacturers, because the wheelbases are different. You would have to adjust
the vehicle and shoot a new video for each new model.

~~~
dogma1138
Many cars share the same or fairly close wheel base.

Sure an SUV and a mini sedan won't but those are extremes.

Considering how many different car models use the same platform even when they
are from different manufacturers since many of those are owned by the same
parent company these days there is probably enough overlap to put slightly
different care models over the same placeholder.

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chii
I find it a bit sad that so much tech has been put into advertising, which, as
an industry is inefficient and a costly zero sum game.

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kerryfalk
Reducing the cost of getting your message to the market without changing your
customer acquisition rate is by definition not a zero sum game.

~~~
robbrown451
I think they are saying advertising itself is the zero sum game....not this
particular modification to it. (and I don't agree advertising is a zero sum
game, I think it is a very, very small number sum game :) )

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honkhonkpants
The video looks super fake at around 1:05. The rear wheel is in the wrong
spot.

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habi
Here's the direct link to that time point:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnBC5bwV5y0&t=65](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnBC5bwV5y0&t=65)

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amelius
But how do you film somebody getting in and out of the car?

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theoh
Is that an action that typically appears in filmed car advertising?

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jessriedel
It's fairly common. Think the successful male stepping out of the car and
greeting his attractive wife.

~~~
alkonaut
Very specific to different cultures I think. I was very surprised when I
visited the US and noticed cars being marketed towards men with attributes
like "tough" etc.

In Scandinavia it's always practical/classy/stylish or humorous.

It would be impossible to market a car with some rock music and a man
appearing successful by having an attractive wife ( _maybe_ just maybe if the
woman was driving)

~~~
jessriedel
That's kind of beside the point. Whatever the cultural difference, there are
plenty of European car ads that feature shots of people in the car, or
entering/exiting it.

~~~
theoh
I was able to confirm it by watching a "top 10" of car ads on Youtube.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eekrb4wJl-k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eekrb4wJl-k)

The ad "tall girl" (Volkswagen, 2013) has a shot where a man exits a small car
and is effectively measured against the car and even the frame (his head is
cropped when he straightens up). The idea is that it shows that, after a
string of shorties, she's about to meet someone who is tall enough for her.

Interestingly the first ad in that Youtube video is the animated dancing robot
Citroen C4 from 2005 -- entirely CG. There's also a full scale model car made
out of cake, and other humorous tricks. Not a lot of potential roles for the
Blackbird.

Another collection of ads (top 10) starts with a VW car driving along with a
dog with his head out the window. I think that would pose similar problems for
the Blackbird methodology.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuXJwR7SKok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuXJwR7SKok)

It's quite possible that witty art direction and the whole VR/environment
mapping/mass customization agenda of the Blackbird are products of two groups
of people who just don't intersect in reality.

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sandworm101
So it draws a shell atop the stand in? That isn't enough. It doesn't seem to
model flex, body roll, vibration or even accurate suspension movements. It
won't fool car guys.

~~~
sawthat
It's not automated. They take the data and use it to help create a CG car, but
the final work is done by human animators.

It might not fool "car guys" but a large number of car commercials shoot with
CG cars now.

~~~
mattalbie
100% correct.

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amelius
Why do you need a rig? Can't ML algorithms predict what kind of movements a
car should make to look realistic?

~~~
talmand
The rig helps with the outside environment as well. Don't have to fake tires
going over multiple surfaces when you filmed real tires. Then there are the
reflections. And so on.

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samwestdev
But how do you chroma key the blackbird out of the video?

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izym
From what I could see, you don't. Rather it seems like they're just putting
the render on top of the video, which fully occludes the blackbird.

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stevecalifornia
My only dream is to one day invent something as clever and useful as this (and
to produce a marketing video as succinct and informative).

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duaneb
It's actually less clever and useful than this makes it out to be. CG is
already prevalent in car ads, so introducing a new physical rig isn't the game
changer it is made out to be.

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PhasmaFelis
So now car ads can be even less honest than they already were.

Great.

~~~
randyrand
This is super commonplace.

Look at apple's ads. Their almost _all_ renderings. Most people don't care as
it looks exactly like the real product.

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mkehrt
No, they're mostly actual photographs by this guy:
[http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/8/4311868/the-illusion-of-
sim...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/8/4311868/the-illusion-of-simplicity-
photographer-peter-belanger-on-shooting)

~~~
Fuzzwah
"actual photographs"

ie: heavily retouched photos

[https://youtu.be/rqC2xpCaG80?t=68](https://youtu.be/rqC2xpCaG80?t=68)

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thawkins
So its hasicaly designed to lie to consumers, so that even that product ads
they are seeing are completly fake.

~~~
berkut
Car ads have been using CG cars for almost 10 years now in a lot of cases,
especially photos.

A lot of product ads are as well - Ikea catalogue "photos" are almost always
CG renders.

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sorenjan
CG images in IKEA catalogues are pretty recent.

[http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/cgsfeatures/cgsfeaturespe...](http://www.cgsociety.org/index.php/cgsfeatures/cgsfeaturespecial/building_3d_with_ikea)

~~~
berkut
4/5 years ago isn't that recent in advertising terms...

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graiz
Most car sites now allow the end user to customize their car with color, trim
& options. I can see this being used to give the end-user a realistic view of
what the car will look like.

Mass customization of cars is increasingly possible with high-end 3D printers
and tech like this may allow you to insert your own idea of what your car will
look like into a Hollywood style commercial.

At the end of the day, car commercials already show people drifting around
corners and skidding to a stop. Realistic commercials of cars stuck in traffic
isn't going to move any units.

