Swift Films recently approached us to work on some CGI shots for a film they were creating for Merchiston Castle School.
The film was used to help launch a fundraising campaign for their new sports facilities. These facilities included a new swimming pool, sports hall and astro-turf rugby pitch.
The film itself was based on over 30 interviews with pupils ending in a visualization of the new facilities; this is where we came in.
The Process
We had access to the 3D CAD model created by the Architects, which meant not modelling from scratch. We exported from Sketch-up into C4D where we did the bulk of re-texturing.
We next went through the model and broke into sections and components. Using various plain effectors we created a rig that we could easily custom time to build as we moved along the 3D model.
In the meantime Swift Films filmed several passes of the proposed facility site using a drone. We took this footage, first removed, old buildings, obstructions, trees etc. and then tracked the camera and exported into Cinema 4D. It was then a case of dropping the 3d model into the correct position.
Once everything was in place we then used the plain effector rig we build previously to animate in time with the camera as it passed over the site.
Finally we matched the lighting of the drone footage, rendered and composited in After Effects.
You can view the full film below:
We also created an alternative version: