Facial features in Flame

A new Honda HR-V spot called ‘Give and Take’ shows several gen-yers adjusting their perceived facial imperfections. The spot’s tagline is ‘What if you could find that sweet spot, where everything is just the way you want it?’, something VFX studio MPC sought to show by pushing and pulling the faces around in Flame. We find out more from MPC LA VFX Supervisor/Lead Flame Artist Benoit Mannequin.

Are you interested in learning more about Flame? fxphd has two new courses in its July term of VFX training – Fundamentals of Commercial Finishing with Jeff Heusser and Graphic Design in Flame with Robert O’Neill.

fxg: What were the concepts like for this spot – were there boards and art – and before and afters of the faces and change in features?

Mannequin: We were approached by directors Alan [Smith] & Adam [Foulkes] and agency RPA to make human face extensions. They were looking to shoot an actor in live action and then use VFX to modify a certain part of their head making it extraordinary. One actor had an enlarged nose and ear, while another had an elongated neck.

They wanted to create a spot that was a metaphor for making adjustments that optimize the features in the new Honda 2016 HR-V Crossover. We received a very cool animated storyboard from the directors that was similar to the final spot. It was a great idea that we were able to give life to.

To test our VFX methodology, we shot and mocked up a test, renting a 4K camera and shooting a 30 second take of a person. The footage was worked on in Flame and proved to be successful. We realized each shot should have a unique approach and we were able to determine what would need to be created in CG and what the limits of photography would be.

Original.
Original.
Final.
Final.

fxg: Can you talk about the shoot – how were the actors directed in terms of the movements they would mime?

Mannequin: We shot the actors in a studio in front of a blue screen. We then worked closely with Alan and Adam to get the actors timing and posture correct.  This was extremely hard to do as they had to play their actions one after another within a specific time over and over, until the take was perfect.

Original
Original
CG.
CG.
Final.
Final.

fxg: How did you approach the morphs? What kind of combination of 2D and 3D worked? How did you make sure to retain facial color and detail?

Mannequin: Our test allowed us to determine the right approach for each scenario and we covered each of the actor’s faces and shoulders with tiny trackers. This was necessary for us to get an accurate matchmove of them using PFTrack. We also brought a 3D scanner to the shoot in order to record the actor’s faces. With HDR images for textures, we cleaned and rigged those models in Maya. The most complex parts of the spot were the floating cheeks and the girl’s eyebrow, for the groom of the eyebrow hair we used Maya with Furtility and then Arnold to render.

One of the biggest challenges of executing those VFX shots was making sure we didn’t lose any sharpness or any of the tiny details you find on the skin. Once we had an accurate matchmove of the face, shoulders, arms and fingers, we could then warp and morph the faces. Two different renders were used; one the camera projected plate, the other being a proper CG render based on the scanned textures and HDRI taken on set.

Other tricks were mostly achieved in Flame. This spot was shot with a Red Dragon at 4K for an HD delivery. The 4K resolution allowed us to get enough sharpness and detail into the textures to play with a lot of the effects as we were compositing in the Flame.

Test shot - ear.
Test shot – ear.
Test shot - nose.
Test shot – nose.

fxg: Can you talk about one of the challenges for going from curly hair to straight?

Mannequin: The challenge of the hair sequence was for the actors to match two actors takes perfectly. First, we shot the girl with her curly hair. Once we had the take we needed, she immediately went back to wardrobe to get redressed for the next sequence. After an hour, she was ready to shoot the exact same action again. Since it needed to match the first shot perfectly, it required skilled actors and many takes.  We created a mockup on set to test the action and finessed it later in Flame by using the warping and morphing tools and technique.