Framestore’s award winning Qualcomm Snapdragon spot

Framestore have been using HDR Light Studio to light variuos shots recently. We caught up with Andy Rowan-Robinson, CG Supervisor, who explains their use on a recent TV spot for Qualcomm.

“In the Snapdragon spot HDR Light Studio was used from blocking out the lighting right through to adding the final tweaks. It allows an extremely quick method to correct our orientations and quickly balance the base HDR images that we send to our renderer. We can play with the general levels of these base images before we go in and lighten and darken specific areas on the fly to create the shape and look that we are after.

As the shot progresses, the LightPaint feature is great for placing specific highlights and rims in the exact places that we want. Instead of experimenting with specific light positions we can simply click in the view where we want the reflection to appear. We found this especially useful for accurately placing highlights in the eyes to really bring the dragon to life.

Production wise we found it really easy to share settings between artists and shots and found the tool is flexible and modular enough to fit well within our pipelines.

To summarise, the tool was invaluable for getting quality and fast results in the lighting – we were able to light accurately and in a very creative way, definitely making the process very enjoyable and intuitive for the lighting artist. By the end of the spot the tool had been employed on almost all dragon shots in the spot.”

About Framestore
Framestore is an Oscar-winning visual effects company that uses innovative talent and technology to create hi-end images for every platform. Framestore partners with clients ranging from Hollywood studios through to advertisers, ad agencies, production companies and video game developers. In addition to being recognised for its globally celebrated visual effects, Framestore has more recently made its name as an innovator in the digital space by focusing on the immersive engagement potential of interactive visual effects. Find out more at: www.framestore.com