Latin America. The Mexican immersive technology company XR Tales has begun to use Composers Ultimatte 12 in numerous virtual productions, for example, the video clip of "Catastrophes Perfumed", the new single by the pop band Jotdog.
The company combined elements created in Unreal Engine with the ability of such devices to perform real-time overlays, in order to create dazzling and energetic images that show a colorful alien invasion.
Located in Guadalajara, the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, XR Tales specializes in virtual productions with visual effects and augmented reality. The music video was directed by Ian Martin and produced by the company, in collaboration with Guanamor Music and CM Films, and is based on "The War of the Worlds", the popular science fiction novel by writer H. G. Wells. During it, vocalist María Barracuda and guitarist Jorge "La Chiquis" Amaro perform the song, while a vibrant city in the process of destruction serves as a backdrop.
The composer was used in conjunction with an Ultimatte Smart Remote 4 device, DeckLink 8K Pro capture and playback cards, and HyperDeck Studio Pro recorders, allowing the team to process the complex scenes of the virtual production, which included graphics, animations, and action sequences.
"With this equipment, we were able to perform the compositions in real time. The artists performed the song in front of a green background in our studio, and in turn we incorporated virtual elements created in Unreal Engine to complete the scenes," said Adler Alonso Zamora Ruiz, director of technology at XR Tales.
Zamora Ruiz stressed that the composer Ultimatte 12 allowed him to manage in real time several layers of environment located in front of and behind the artists. In this regard, he explained: "Since the singer was fleeing from the zombies, at the same time that a huge gorilla transported her, and floated in the sky while the aliens took her away, there was a lot of movement, and we needed to ensure that everything curdled without affecting the colors. With this device, we were able to see the separate images on two screens, that is, one with the artists in front of the green background, and the other with all the other virtual elements we added. This made it easier to lead."
"One of the main challenges when carrying out virtual productions is that the green backgrounds must be perfectly lit," he added. "Although the music video included very complex scenes with intense colors and graphic elements, we didn't have to worry about it thanks to the composer's tools for chrominance overlays. These allowed us to correct shadows and dark spots instantly, and in turn identify the areas we needed to focus on immediately, in order to retouch the images or perform additional tasks. This was a huge advantage, as we were able to make adjustments on the fly and eliminate tedious post-production work."
"We are very proud of the result we achieved in the music video. It was months of hard work to bring it to life and make our vision a reality. It's amazing to see what we create thanks to the teams at Blackmagic Design. I hope Jotdog fans enjoy it as much as we do in producing it," said Zamora Ruiz.
