Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/680196
BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 13 POST MAY 2016 "With Patron, we pushed the rules to the limit. We are always moving," says Akey of the camera motion used for the produc- tion. "If you use motion well, you will get far better VR than if it is just static." THE PRODUCTION PROCESS Shooting the footage for The Art of Patron took a few days, but post production spanned eight weeks and involved 35 to 40 people at Firstborn and Legend. Without question, the project contained a lot of moving piec- es and required input from a number of parties. To help manage production tracking, digital asset management, and team collaboration, the groups utilized ftrack's cloud-based creative project management tool. For the most part, Legend was re- sponsible for stitching the video in 360 degrees, 2D-to-3D stereo conversion, VR formatting, color correcting, cleanup (such as rig removal), and integration of the VFX work from Patron and Firstborn. Legend used The Foundry's Nuke for all the painting and compositing work. The post process was far more involved than just compiling on-set video. "To accomplish a complete tour of the Patron- making process and to do it at the highest quality, we needed to combine live-action VR filming with vivid, cinematic CG, a first in the VR world," says Tabor. To this end, Legend developed cus- tom systems to track the CGI amid the 360-degree live footage. The facility used its proprietary S-Track software, which provides an automated camera track of a stitched live-action image for easy VFX integration. This enabled the teams to stitch together the footage captured si- multaneously by the drone cameras, while accommodating the CG additions and tweaks within the presentation. "We used R-Kill for the plates, and we did a stitch on those plates. Then we used our tracking software to create a solid track and did VFX integration into the virtual environment," explains Akey. Photorealistic CG was integrated into the stitched-together footage, to put peo- ple in places where the camera couldn't go. "When you put on the VR headset and become the bee [in the finished experience], and you are flying around the Patron Hacienda, it's unlike anything I have ever seen. You forget that you are human, and you get this sensation of flying and floating through the air," says Adrian Parker, VP of digital marketing at Patron Spirits Company. The final experience was finished in 4Kx2K resolution for presenta- tion on Samsung Gear VR headsets. Finishing and posting shots with the GoPro-based system was especially chal- lenging at the time. "Everyone was trying to figure out how to get the highest-cal- iber image, but also find a way to play it back and not have to wait hours for it to download," says Akey. "There was a lot of R&D required with the codecs." The work was challenging and ground- breaking, but the end result is impressive. And for some, the irony of using state-of- the-art technology to present the story of an old, handcrafted process for an inventive project was not lost. For more on "Drones" and the Proton project, see our Special Report, page 36. — BY KAREN MOLTENBREY