“The Human Race” is an interactive film that merges real-time visual effects and live-action storytelling as well as a range of technologies that, combined, pushed beyond the limits of existing real-time rendering capabilities to produce a futuristic film for Chevrolet that features the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in a heated race with the Chevrolet FNR autonomous concept car.

Within the commercial, either car can be swapped out and configured by the viewer. This project embodies Chevrolet’s tagline ‘Find New Roads’ and was conceived to kick off a multi-platform campaign marking the 50th anniversary of the Camaro.

In addition to the film, this technology was used to create a bespoke car configurator for Chevrolet dealerships that enable customers to configure their own vehicle and see it rendered instantly into the film.

Bringing this project to life required three unique innovations; The Unreal Game Engine, Cyclops(a virtual toolkit) and Blackbird (an adjustable car rig.)

Traditionally, CG cars are integrated into live-action footage through post-production, requiring days of rendering and compositing to produce seamless imagery. However, the CG in this film is rendered instantly. This is achieved through live video feeds and positional data captured Blackbird, which are fed into the Unreal Game Engine via Cyclops, a proprietary virtual production toolkit enabling photoreal lighting and reflection composites – something that was not previously possible with BLACKBIRD alone.

These composites were then fed through an AR app, meaning the director and cinematographer could see their CG assets live on set, and adjust the camera based on what they saw.

Live rendering makes the film fully customizable and interactive. The CG assets can be switched instantly and still react with the environment.

With pre-rendered methods, the film would need to be finished over 300 times to match the configuration options. By using the Unreal Engine, the film is rendered on the fly, allowing for any number of configurations. This gives the viewers the ability to customize the Camaro in the film as they watch it

‘The Human Race’ blends cinematic storytelling and real-time visual effects to define a new era of narrative possibilities.

This is a pivotal moment for film VFX and the coming era of augmented reality production. Using this cutting-edge combination of technology, filmmakers are able to see their photoreal digital assets live on location in real time.

It also means the audience can effect change in films in ways previously unimagined, giving interactive control over vehicles, characters and environments within a live action cinema experience. With Cyclops, a new proprietary virtual production toolkit, we are able to render and integrate digital assets into the real world to a level never seen before.