Chevrolet's 'The Human Race' Is The Future Of Car Videos

“With Mill Cyclops™, The Mill’s proprietary virtual production toolkit, we can render and integrate digital assets into the real world to a level never seen before.”

By Sreejith

Updated: Friday, March 3, 2017, 19:58 [IST]

American car manufacturer Chevrolet has created a new video in collaboration with Epic Games and The Mill to revolutionize the conventions of digital filmmaking with their new short film called "The Human Race." The short film merges real-time visual effects and live-action storytelling.

The Human Race: Epic Games, The Mill And Chevrolet Unveils Real-time Film

The 90-second video shows a ferocious FNR autonomous concept racing against a 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 driven by an accomplished race driver. The short film and augmented reality (AR) presentation was shown today at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco.

The only real vehicle in this heated race was the Mill BLACKBIRD, a fully adjustable rig that enables filmmakers to insert almost any car model. Until now, CG cars were added in the post-production process after all the physical footage are captured, requiring days of rendering to produce high-quality imagery.

But now, Epic Games' virtual reality Unreal Engine, a positional service called array tracking along with The Mill's Mill Cyclops virtual-production tech will allow the filmmakers to see how virtual cars look in the shot real-time.

The same technology was used to develop The Human Race, narrowing the lines between production and post. A live recreation of the AR visualization was also shown during Epic's presentation, offering an up-close view of the real-time tech used to produce the project.

Angus Kneale, Chief Creative Officer at The Mill in New York, said, "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 Unreal's cutting-edge game engine technology, filmmakers can see their photoreal digital assets 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 Mill Cyclops^TM, The Mill's proprietary virtual production toolkit, we can render and integrate digital assets into the real world to a level never seen before."