Gadgetory

what if I told you the car you're seeing is not actually there in fact the car in the shot never even showed up on the set the acting was all done by this rig the mill Blackbird and was transformed live right onto the viewfinder of the camera using a video game engine the Blackbird has been around for about a year but until recently all the visual effects had to be added in after the fact which required hours of rendering and editing now all the magic happens in real time epics Unreal Engine the same used in many video games paints the Camaro onto the Blackbird rig allowing the director to see what the car will look like in the environment just by looking through the lens or tablet the rest is done by the Blackbird the frame is customized to mimic the Camaro's driving motion and simultaneously collect data about its environment to make the final render look real down to the last shadow just switch out the wheels or extend the frame and the mill black bird's body morphs into any vehicle at the push of a button and because it's electric the suspension twork and even the acceleration can all be modified to match the carve choice whether it's a sleek sports car or midsize SUV then it's off to tear up the pavement with a single driver at the wheel the Blackbird has a 360-degree camera set up on a stabilizer and a lidar laser tracking system to capture lighting and terrain details which will then be projected onto the CGI overlay of whatever car it becomes this means car manufacturers don't need the finished version of the latest car in order to shoot a commercial and they don't risk competitors catching a glimpse of it before it launches once the footage has been captured the visual effects team can easily tweak or alter the virtual body and interior this also means you can reuse the same footage for newer models as they are released the Blackbird is already in use so next time you see a shiny car on screen just remember you may not be looking at the real thing