THE HUMAN RACE / Mill Cyclops™

“Combining an advanced implementation of Epic’s Unreal Engine with The Mill’s proprietary virtual production toolkit, Mill Cyclops™, “The Human Race” merges real-time visual effects and live-action storytelling. The combined technologies were pushed beyond the limits of existing real-time rendering capabilities to produce a futuristic film that features the 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in a heated race with the Chevrolet FNR autonomous concept car.

The only physical vehicle filmed for “The Human Race” was the Mill BLACKBIRD®. Until now, CG cars were added by visual effects artists in post-production, requiring days of rendering to produce high-quality imagery. During this shoot, however, live video feeds as well as positional data from the Arraiy tracking system were fed directly into Unreal Engine. The Camaro was then rendered and composited seamlessly into the footage in real-time AR, allowing the directors to instantly see the final look and composition of each shot.

The same real-time technology was used to create, alter and produce the short film, blurring the lines between production and post.” – The Mill

Credits:
Release Year: 2017
Client: EPIC GAMES, CHEVROLET
Agency: COMMONWEALTH / MCCANN
Production Company: THE MILL, NEW YORK
The Mill Group Director of Emerging Tech: BOO WONG
The Mill Creative Director: RAMA ALLEN
The Mill Creative Director: WESTLEY SAROKIN
The Mill Experiential Producer: LAUREN BICKERS
The Mill Project Producer: KATIE KOLOMBATOVICH
The Mill Technical Producer: WYATT SAVARESE
The Mill Creative Developer: MIKE MANH
The Mill Creative Developer: ERIC RENAUD-HOUDE

Press:

(2017-10-23) SIGGRAPH Conferences. “The Mill and Epic Games Push Real-time Boundaries with ‘The Human Race’” ACM SIGGRAPH Blog 23 Oct. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Alvarez, Edgar. “Epic Games Shows the Potential of High-end Augmented Reality” Engadget 1 Mar. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Roettgers, Janko. “EPIC Games Has a Daring Proposal for Hollywood: Real-Time Visual Effects” Variety 1 Mar. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Seymour, Mike. “The Mill’s Incredible Blackbird at GDC: The Future of Virtual Production” FX Guide 1 Mar. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Statt, Nick. “This Motion Capture System for Cars Lets a Vehicle Morph in Real Time. Augmented Reality for Filmmaking” The Verge 1 Mar. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Wilson, Mark. “This Crazy New Technology Transforms Movies Into Video Games” Fast Co. Design 1 Mar. 2017.
(2017-03-01) Takahashi, Dean. “Epic Games, Chevrolet, and The Mill Blend Augmented Reality and Film” Venture Beat 1 Mar. 2017.

Awards:
2017: SIGGRAPH: Best Real-time Graphics and Interactivity Award: The Human Race (The Mill, in collaboration with Epic Games)