SCAD x NYC – Week 3
My progress during the 10-week collaboration with Harbor Picture Company, Electrical Theatre Collective, and Calling All Talent.
(Most recent progress at the top)
WEEK 3 – TO-DO (INDIVIDUAL):
- Fix transition between shot 1 (weaving) and 2 (embroidery)
- Adjust shot 2 camera move
- Fix transition between shot 3 (cloth waving) and shot 4 (bed)
- give shot 3 more context
- Make cloth sim (shot 3) more elegant – try slow-motion
- Embroidery shot (shot 2) – slow motion
- Continue FX shot development
WEEK 3 – TO-DO (TEAM):
- Lighting development
- More color
- Less flat
- Fix transitions + camera work
- Shot 1-2: camera fixes
- Shot 3-4: fix transition
- Slow down FX shots
- Make materials feel softer
Jan 24, 2026
Week 4 – To Do
- Shot 3 – Cloth Transition
- Improve cloth behavior
- Test out slow motion cloth
- Shot 2 – Embroidery
- Improve thread movement
- Improve thread interaction with cloth
- Add some noise/ edge breakup in the embroidery to feel more realistic
- Incorporate pattern for embroidery to follow
- Work on optimization for export
- Test render with new shaders and lighting
Jan 23, 2026
FX – Shot 2: Embroidery
Thread Movement Tests
- The original embroidery shot had a zigzag movement to copy how machine embroidery looks in my references
- I wanted to try out ways to make the movement more interesting
- Test with some secondary movement of growing, then settling:
- Notes:
- I like that the string is lifted here, but I think right now, the movement looks like it is unraveling, rather than stitching, so I will work on fixing this movement
- The geometry was getting extremely heavy with exports, so I will work on optimizing
- I think this doesn’t read as embroidery very well right now, so it may be helpful to zoom out a little more have this follow a pattern
Test 1:
- I used vex to make the stitches grow large, then settle to a middle value
Test 1 – Use of AI : Claude for VEX
- I used Claude AI to help me create an offset effect with the growing stitches
Test 2:
- I wanted to create stitching effect that felt more elegant to match the tone of the brand and the rest of our commercial
- I continued using Claude AI to help me create a zigzag pattern, then add a wave to each new turn of the zigzag
- I will continue refining this so that the thread follows more of a stitching movement
Jan 19, 2026
Feedback – Week 3 Review
Feedback from Mentors:
- Billy
- Like the change to a more elegant brand style
- Softness of fabric is very important
- Improve shader
- Neutral studio lighting to test
- Hailey
- Make the lighting have some more color (with golden lighting and subtle purples and blues)
- Beck
- Don’t have shadowing in the weaving shot
- Bed should look comfortable
- Lighting is too flat and makes the shaders lose detail
- Shot 4 should start at a nicer view of the bed/cloth (not the wall)
- You should be able to pause at a frame and it should like like something you would photograph
- Fix framing, we don’t realize the bed is being made for a long time
- Shot 3 can just be a transition into the flying cloth in shot 4
- Kyle:
- Too much fill light (hotel room)
- Make sure CG is the best you can get it before doing the live action shoot – Push the shoot back
- Gather better lighting references
- Make bed look more luxurious
- Beginning two shots are not connected, have a better transition between the two (maybe a subtle camera move that continues into shot 2)
- Think more sequentially between the first shots
- Shot 3 feels a little random, give it more context
- Individual elements are good, but everything needs to fit together better
- Stephan:
- Shot 3 sheet can just be a wipe element as a transition
- Professor Hannah Kuehn:
- Use greyscale pass to check fill and key of lighting tests
- Gobo/window light
- Bed shouldn’t be perfectly made
- Weaving/Embroidery shots should be slow motion to look more luxury
- Macro shots