Case study
Tech21 VR Experience
Show me the videoThe Details
The challenge was to create a positive experience which required the consumer to be pushed outside their comfort zone whilst demonstrating the extraordinary capabilities of the product.
Working in conjunction with BecauseXM, Austella was commissioned to create a short 360 CGI video that would take users through various dramatically-enhanced phone-dropping scenarios throughout a home to demonstrate and showcase the resilience of Tech 21’s products.
The experience was used as part of a pop-up installed in shopping centres and trade shows throughout the UK, US and Australia to highlight the products in an innovative way.
The Process
This was an incredibly short project for the scope of the brief, which meant we couldn’t rely on the tried and tested rendering techniques we’d previously relied upon. Rendering of CGI 360 experiences is a lengthy task – roughly 30 minutes to 2 hours per frame, which equates to 7200 frames i.e. 150 – 600 days of rendering.
We used Unreal Engine 4 for the project and devised a plan to capture the 360 footage ‘live’, so as opposed to rendering the video, we would play it through the engine and essentially record it in real time. Unreal Engine 4 has the functionality to capture 2D footage but not 360.
The answer was to create a bespoke plugin that enabled us to record in full 360. However, the time taken to record in real time was still high, at least in the resolution we were aiming for, so we created a script that enabled each PC in the office to record a small segment of the overall experience and later stitch each piece of the footage together.
The Results
5500
+
Experiences created
52000
Positive customer engagements
