CGI has become part and parcel of almost every film and even TV advert that we watch. Depending on the cost of the production or the type of stunt work, backgrounds and then the amount spent on the CG itself,
Sometimes it’s obvious where CG is placed and it’s easy to tell that it’s not real but in recent productions like Mad Max where much of what we see wasn’t actually there, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.
Today we watched this video by a company called The Mill BLACKBIRD on Vimeo and it simply blew me away. The Mill have created a car rig which can be used almost anywhere to shoot car commercials and can then be re-skinned digitally to produce TV commercials of any car without that car even being present.
The Blackbird has an adjustable chassis and can extend itself by 4 feet and width by up to 10 inches and making it able to mimic almost any normal road car. Not only that but it has a programmable electric motor which can be electronically adjusted to mimic any car.
It got us thinking that it wont be long before we start seeing (or not even knowing that we’re seeing) this technology in Hollywood. With studios always looking to save money, we’re sure that the Blackbird could be used to recreate or destroy expensive cars digitally rather than destroying the real things. Obviously Hollywood has been using CG for this purpose for years now but the Blackbird makes it easier to produce with a real chassis in place and then just a case of adding the desired skin on afterwards.
Here’s the official info below but have a watch of this astonishing promo video – we think you’ll be as amazed as we were!
The Mill has created The Mill BLACKBIRD, the first fully adjustable car rig that creates photoreal CG cars – it’s a car rig that can be shot at any time, in any location, without the need to rely on a physical car. Created in collaboration with JemFX, Performance Filmworks and Keslow, Mill Blackbird inspires and expands creative opportunities, offering a truly flexible production tool without sacrificing any quality or direction.
