SCAD x Harbor
② Week 3
Bulgari Serpenti Ring
Feedback from Mentors (Class 5 )
Material & Design:
Replace jade with a more appropriate stone (denser look).Consider having the dragon hold the ring instead of placing it in the ball.
Improve the ring’s design; refine details further.
Visual & Environment:
Previs desert environment is unclear; make it more readable.Match architecture and textures to Bulgari’s brand style.
Update the dragon’s texture to a better wood finish (reference Mias website).
Cinematography & Composition:
Reduce ring flipping; keep one macro closeup.First scene: Use a single color tone and integrate particle disintegration with the trail effect.
Shots 1–3: Shorten and transition to a beauty shot.
Shot 2-1: Extend to show more of the branch and effect.
Remove or merge the opening close-up with shot 1–2.
Execution & Methodology:
Avoid using the Jen library location for shooting.Consider using 2.5D (photo projection with 3D tracking) for the first scene instead of live-action.
Use photos over filming where applicable.
Branding & Technical
Ensure IOR (Index of Refraction) values align with Bulgari’s specifications.Week 3 Task - Camera refining and Fx development
1. FX development and Animation (shot2)
2. Camera refining
3. Find a new tree branch
1. Fx Development and Animation
Snake scale transformation
I actually struggled for a long time about this part of the effects because I was worried that the final result would come out too cluttered for the picture, but so far it looks ok. Then this week I mostly re-fixed the shape of the scales, as well as fixing the material changes
here is work in process of material switching, for more detail of this fx (please see week 2 blog)
@Initial_Height is above a threshold, otherwise it sets the color to black and progress to 0, and then I key frame the threshold to make a growthing effect on the tree branch surfaceParticle Trail and object animation
Basically most of my time this week has been spent on animation, camera motion tweaks and path tweaks for the particle trial. Especially on the particle trail, I really tried a lot of shapes for the trail, because I wanted to use the trail to represent the snake element in an abstract way (to recreate the movement of the snake), and the following three videos are what the final particle trail looked like this week, with the trail having a twisting motion on the branches before disappearing.
and about the animation, there are three objetc animation. The animations definitely need to be revised as there are so many things I'm not happy with them, and the landing of the animation should be shown more elegantly, so I'll be revising the pacing of the animation to show the ring as well as the brand's aura later on.
Final look week 3 (shot2-1, 2-2)
This is the current final version, there are two versions of this about shot2-1, basically the difference is that the scaling effect is not the same time. Overall all three are too fast, and then secondly, when I watched it over and over again, I felt that shot2-1 had too many elements within the picture, and I felt that some of the elements needed to be weakened later.
2. Camera Refining
Shot 1-1 & 1-2
About the camera movement, I made an effort to revise shot 1 based on the feedback, particularly with the animation of the ring. The feedback from the first week pointed out that there should be a common element between the scenes to ensure they flow together. Since our shot 1 and shot 2 environments don’t share many continuous elements, we thought using a particle trail to guide the diamond to the next shot could be an effective solution. My goal was to keep the visual effects in shots 1 and 2 as concise as possible, showcasing both disintegration and the particle trail. but considering we should show the whole body of the dragon statue (disintegration effect), we decided to move forward with another camera movement.
Shot2-1, 2-2 & 2-3
Regarding the camera movement of shot2-1, I tried many kinds, such as zoom out, and follow the camera, but according to the professor's feedback, this shot contains too many dynamic objects, and shouldn't do too much camera movement, and also shouldn't stop the camera when the objects are moving, so the final one chose to use a still shot, and move the focus of the frame to the left side, to give the right side of the frame leaving more visual space
2. Tree branch model
Yilin Zhao / SANM560 / SCAD x Harbor