UrbanTiger x Vladimir Net x Sxema
In celebration of the UrbanTiger brand's collaboration with street art artist Vladimir Net - Pixel Planet, we crafted a captivating VFX video. This video serves as a promotional tool for the apparel collection across social media, our website, and physical stores.
A horizontal version of the video is also utilized on the website and as a projection in the brand's physical stores.
To engage our audience with this unique collaboration, we brainstormed a way to showcase the DNA of the UrbanTiger brand and the artist's style in a VFX video. Vladimir Net, a renowned street art artist, transforms city streets into physical paintings using mosaics in the pixel art style. We conceived the idea of creating a video featuring the pixel planet (one of the artist's real-life works), which morphs real physical space into pixel space.
Our initial concept draft included:
1. "Pixel Invasion"
We introduced several characters from the artist's pixel universe. The video begins with a planet flying in, followed by a tiger emerging from behind a column, and a horse appearing from behind the Hermitage building. Ultimately, the planet overtakes the horse, collides with the column, the ground, and flies towards the viewer.
2. Inspired by the classic Pinball tables, we visualized the game on a city street. The planet enters the scene and begins colliding with buildings, transforming them into pixelated objects. The video concludes with the planet suspended in mid-air.
3. The third concept featured a wave that rushes in and twists into a vortex, vanishing into an arch and scattering into pixels. Subsequently, the building metamorphoses into a pixelated one, and a planet materializes in the air from tiny pixels.
We selected a shooting location and performed photogrammetry, along with an HDRI map, to facilitate the creation of 3D building models.
Photogrammetry allows for precise building location, simplifying future work, while HDRI helps transfer real lighting and achieve consistent shadows.
The subsequent steps involved tracking, which enabled us to incorporate 3D objects into the scene.
We created a 3D planet model, tracked the scene, and marked the planet's flight path at the location.
Concurrently, we worked on converting the 2D planet into a 3D model for the animation's test version and developed tracking for the future 3D scene.
At this stage, we focused on the effect of transforming a physical building into a pixelated one after a planet collision.
We experimented with various visually appealing and effective options...
until we reached the final result, satisfying both the team and the client.
The project's final phase involved numerous operations for the final video rendering, including:
• Matching the new 3D objects with the footage so that they have the same contrast, saturation, color, etc.;
• Cleaning up unnecessary details from the video: hatches, snow, etc.;
• Cleaning up the parts of the video when the ball moves behind the column;
• Adding the glow effects to the column when a ball hits it;
• Adding motion blur to the 3d renders to match the natural camera blur from movement.
Over 60 layers were used to achieve the final composite.
