Resorts World “Stay Fabulous” :60
PSYOP Productions brought me on as Creative Director and Realtime VFX/VP Supervisor for this incredibly fun and creative project. Collaborating with Director Marco Spier, I played a key role in shot design and previsualization. I assembled and led the VAD team, oversaw all creative technology, designed and built the wall content, and worked closely with Production Designer Jeff Higginbotham. Additionally, I consulted with DOP Matt Jensen throughout preproduction.
Recognized in the industry (and even by ChatGPT) as the first-ever large-scale VP production for a commercial ad.
Storyboards, Previz and Techviz were integral to this production, serving as the foundation for designing shots within real-world constraints—particularly the LED volume.
The key to seamless ICVFX production is strategically integrating digital environments with practical set pieces so that the transition is invisible. I love tackling this challenge. For Celine Dion’s scenes in an oversized pinball machine, one of the biggest hurdles was making the wood floor transition seamlessly into a digital floor. My solution was to incorporate a practical ramp to obscure the transition point. Additionally, we used DMX controllers to sync the practical LED bumper props with their digital counterparts in the wall content, triggering them in perfect sequence. This approach proved highly effective in achieving a seamless blend between the real and virtual elements.
I'm incredibly proud of the innovation we introduced in this production, particularly what became known as the "ICVFX Band-Aid." My goal was to achieve as much of the VFX in-camera (ICVFX) as possible.
For the boat scenes with Luke Bryan, we had wide shots where he was fishing, and we also needed to see a cross-section of the ocean beneath the boat. Practically, only the top of the boat was built, with rigging that would typically require post-removal. However, when working with real-time content in virtual production on an LED volume, the system understands the camera’s spatial relationship to every inch of the wall in 3D space.
Leveraging this, I developed a method where we used a flat LED panel registered as an extension of the LED volume. This allowed us to project real-time Unreal Engine pixels onto the screen, effectively patching over the rigging in real-time—eliminating the need for post-VFX cleanup. I brought the concept to our stage partner, NANT Studios, and they embraced the challenge, building and testing the solution successfully.
