Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/663385
24 cgw m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 6 The "Duality" commercial, which became an immediate hit on YouTube, was created for the product's CES 2016 launch early this year, where it debuted at the Razer booth. S T O R Y T E L L I N G According to Wen Hao, cum m+d over the years had been trying to nudge Razer toward a story focus rather than a pure product one, "so viewers could envision how they would use the product." The studio also want- ed to incorporate a hook to grab their attention – in this case, the explosion. While it took some time to lock down the concept and get approval by the large corporate client, the execution by the small studio took approx- imately two months. "We did storyboards for the first few concepts, but by the time they had agreed on this, we needed to jump straight to previs," says Wen Hao, who had pitched the idea via Skype to the client, which is in the US. As Wen Hao explains, the studio was established on the 3D strengths of its two found- ers. It has since evolved into a creative agency that runs the entire gamut, from creative pitch to completion. "We started doing CG commercials for Razer around three years ago, then moved into product photography, since we had the CG assets already. Instead of Razer having to do product shoots, we could light the product in CG and use those for print ads," he says. Web and print campaigns followed. "Now we serve as the creative and then execute the ideas for our clients. CG is one of our powerful weapons because it spreads across all the different channels very effectively, especially with products," Wen Hao says. "It is an effective skill set and tool set for any creative agency." Cum m+d now comprises 10 full-time employees, each with a specific skill set, yet all are considered generalists – for instance, a photographer who knows lighting can light in CG easily. "We all bounce around the different fields, but we are individually strong in certain areas, too," Wen Hao points out. In addition, the studio hires an international talent pool of artists as needed, enabling cum m+d to compete with larger facilities. With a team that varies in skill and makeup, the studio uses a core set of industry- standard soware – Autodesk's Maya and Adobe's Aer Effects, which most digital artists are familiar with. E X P L O S I V E W O R K Wen Hao points out that most of Razer's products are black and previously have been shown within a dark environ- ment with a little smoke and atmospherics. "It's really easy to make a product look great against a black or stark environ- ment," he says. "But once there are other elements added, it is harder to make the product look beautiful and sit correctly with everything else. It's no longer about just making the product sexy; you have to make everything look great." The animation for "Duality" starts with product beauty shots. The artists built the models in 3D using the prod- uct's CAD files as reference. Then the group constructed the office, inserting upward of 50 realistic models – a bike leaning against the back wall; a cabinet with a printer, folders, books, and papers; a desk with a lamp, coffee mug, pens, papers, magazine, Post-its, and more. "We wanted to make the scene believable, and that required a lot of details," says Wen Hao. All the objects are fully tex- tured and lit with global illumi- nation using Chaos's V-Ray and Lightmap's HDR Light Studio. The destruction scene was crafted by an artist who used Autodesk's 3ds Max, along with Sitni Sati's FumeFX and Cebas's Thinking Particles. "Since the smoke effects were rendered in 3ds Max, we had to match the lighting to what was in Maya," explains Wen Hao. Meanwhile, the devasta- tion to the world outside is a matte painting. Throughout the project, the team was handling very large files and transporting the data back and forth around the world. This included the office model textures as well as the destruc- tion scene. "We were constantly handing the files among the artists," says Wen Hao. "For the destruction, we had to move gigabyte-size alembic files over to the next person to do the smoke simulations." To render these heavy scenes, the crew used two cloud rendering providers: RebusFarm based in Germany and Fox Render Farm in China. Near the end of the project, the data was sent to four different locations before it was synchro- nized at cum m+d and then sent to Fox for final rendering. "We are always trying to do work that challenges us and also helps our clients," Wen Hao says. For "Duality," Wen Hao and his group were successful, con- ceiving and delivering a project that blows viewers away. ■ Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of Computer Graphics World. WWW.VIMEO.COM/CUM/ RAZERBLADESTEALTH CREATIVE STUDIO CUM M+D TOOK A STORYTELLING APPROACH FOR "DUALITY," USING TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER TECHNIQUES IN THE ALL-CG COMMERCIAL.