We're always keen to try new technology, so when the opportunity arose to combine AI-generated holiday backgrounds with two presenters filmed against green screen, we thought we'd give it a go. What could possibly go wrong? Err...
Quite a lot, as it turned out.
Google's Veo 3 produced some impressive backgrounds, particularly water and moving clouds. Trees and foliage, not so much. Strange patterns, odd artefacts and excessive contrast made some scenes look distinctly artificial. And trying to persuade AI to fix one thing without changing everything else was a head-banging exercise.
The studio didn't help either. With no space lights, getting the lighting right was an uphill battle. We hadn't paid nearly enough attention to matching the direction of sunlight, shadows and exposure. The result was footage that was difficult to key and harsh highlights we had no chance of removing.
Topaz Video AI came to the rescue, upscaling our foreground plates to 8K and helping enormously with the keying. A brilliant bit of software, but even it couldn't make studio lighting behave like Mediterranean sunshine.
We eventually replaced two AI backgrounds with stock footage, but despite plenty of experimentation, the client understandably felt the finished composites weren't convincing enough.
So, faced with a difficult decision and suffering through an unusually hot British summer, we found a location in England that looked remarkably like somewhere considerably warmer. We reshot the entire series of ten-second idents at no additional cost to the client.
The result? A happy client and a much more convincing set of films.
The lesson? Previsualise the hell out of it. Study every shadow, highlight and lighting direction before filming, and allow far more time for testing than you think you'll need.
We're still excited about AI and where it's heading. But fooling the human eye is remarkably difficult.
And sometimes, the best visual effect is finding the right location and hoping it doesn't rain.