Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan
This project took us to the edge of space and back... literally. When Outpost's revolutionary new tech called, our team answered with revolutionary new visuals that pushed even our limits as we got to work animating and simulating a space carry-all with zero references prior.
Embarking on an iterative, creative and functional process towards crafting a Hero video for Outpost's new vehicle, designed to return items from space with precision and elegance, was a challenge and an honor all at the same time. Scroll down to find out how it all came together...
CGI PROCESS
For this project, we knew we'd be working with complex simulations, detail-oriented visuals, and a full slew of 'starting-from-the-ground-up" CGI requirements. Working primarily in Blender & Houdini, with help from Embergen and countless additional plugins, we were able to accurately simulate and animate some of the most difficult things to replicate in 3D like parachute fabric opening/falling, variable gravity effects, entirely custom environments, flame simulations and countless nuanced details that are hard to appreciate until diving deeper. We invite you to pay attention to the details of this film as we break down some of the behind-the-scenes that went into it in the content below...
ANIMATICS DEVELOPMENT
With something that's never been seen before, comes a level of preparation and planning that often goes undervalued. In order to ensure both creative and objective perfection, along with client satisfaction and the quickest turnaround possible, we invested a significant portion of the project into developing rudimentary animatics that demonstrated clearly the exact animations and shot progression in a quick-and-dirty manner that allowed us to iterate and adjust quickly. This allowed us to iron out all revisions before getting down to the hard animations and simulations, resulting in a final delivery after only 1 round of revisions. A 2 month turnaround would've been impossible without this process. Checkout the animatic/final comparisons below...
FINALE
As the project came together, we transitioned to the finishing touches. Between coloring, foley, graphics and mastering all the fine details into one complete film, we made the intangible tangible and unpolished RAW CGI PNG & ProRes sequences into an immersive film that brings the audience right into the action.
To wrap the project, we edited together several cutdowns, along with their respective vertical formats for social media, to ensure that Outpost's technology could connect with viewers, investors, fans, and space enthusiasts natively wherever the content reaches them. Checkout some of the post production Behind-The-Scenes in Houdini, After Effects and Blender below.
CONCLUSION
Completing this project was nothing short of thrilling, as we knew the world would finally be able to see the product of our intense labor, huge amounts of learning and our entirely intangible concept come to life for this new technology. We can't wait to see what's next for Outpost and to watch their tech transform humanity's relationship with space even further!
