>> See Also: Interview with Unit Image: Making of CANAL Kitchen
The project was one big creative journey but the most challenging part, for sure, was the development of the the face itself. The team aimed to create a projection that would be able to express different emotions and reactions, sometimes triggered with glitches. It had to look as if the character took a random face and was trying to match it up with his emotions. As you've seen in the video, our hero is even lip syncing to the lyrics for a slight moment. They flew to Oxford, UK to record and scan Thom Yorke's face. The combined footage was used in the further process of the technical look development.
Most of the shots in our video include very complex matte paintings and visual effects. There are only couple scenes which were left almost untouched during post production process. Into some of them they've composed very subtle colored elements referring to the visuals and identity of Mark Pritchard's album.
Color grading was also very important part. They came up with totally new and unique correction creating the visual journey and balancing the shots. Deletion of the ropes, sky replacements and all these regular post productions tasks were nothing comparing to the development process of the face. It was the biggest challenge both creatively and technically. They spent weeks on tests and setup preparation. Their vision expanded with technological advancement. They've been sitting days and nights improving our knowledge and skills but at the end they finished with visually amazing project. Behind most of these creative decisions stands Jakub Knapik who took a role of the art director on this project.
To scan Thom's face they used Microsoft Kinect 2 driven by Brekel Pro PointCloud softwear plus witness cam. CGI Face and other visual effects were mainly developed using Autodesk Maya, Houdini and Cinema 4D. Color grading was made on Nucoda. They've composed the shots both in Nuke and Smoke software.
