Microsoft Azure
I had been previously assisting with compositing and render troubleshooting on some Microsoft projects at Buck, but this was my first big project where I had an active role and worked on multiple shots independently. Microsoft announced Azure at their conference, Microsoft Build, as a new AI app to help their users. We looked to envision its complex systems of node based information input through the layering and caustics of glass. This visual of color spreading throughout our created world as glass pieces connected to one another felt like a final product/idea coming to fruition.
Project Details: Create an abstract but informative video to promote Microsoft’s new AI app, Azure.
Animated in Cinema 4D, Designed in Cinema 4D, Rendered in Redshift, Composited in Nuke and AE
Film 1 Shot 020 Process
Film 1 Shot 150 Process
Film 2 Shot 020 Process
We had a final challenge for this shot that I’ve added below involving specular flicker. I decided to fix it in comp to save our render time and noticed that the specular pass with the flicker was otherwise a solid gray color for our glass panels. I matched that gray color and shuffled the alpha of whatever panel I needed to fix it for and merged it over that panels specular pass to remove the flicker. In the final result, it’s unnoticeable that the pass was changed for those panels and is a great trick I can maybe incorporate in future work.