We decided early on to rely entirely upon simulated ink. This posed a fairly complex problem to solve - match moving with sufficient accuracy to allow for realistic liquid simulation.

How do we solve this issue?

A $400 still camera recording MPEG1, Boujou, Pixel Farm Track, Matchmover Pro and an hour of spare time for some experimentation. (The final shoot would be done on a Canon XL1 with direct 4:4:4 output into Final Cut recorded at 1920x1080, so my theory was if I could successfully do it in a poorly lit room with my photo-camera, I should have no trouble at all doing it with the Canon).

Early matchmoving/liquid integration tests

The final solution came to model the table with accuracy inside 3D Max, motion track within Boujou then manipulate the camera data within 3D Max by controlling the parent object. Boujou proved to be worth its weight in gold.

Part 2 - The Shoot
We shot the table, and after the ink had fell off the table, we decided to keep everything CGI to simplify the amount of tracking required. This also gave us more flexibility for angles and timing later on.

The Shoot

Part 3 - The Sims!
Shot05 (the shot where the liquid drips off the corner of the table) soon became the most revised shot, the scale and viscosity were always a talking point - so talked about the shot ended up going through 28 revisions on the simulation, 12 shaded revisions and 3 different versions of the final composite.

We decided early on during the edit that producing the entire commercial in 1080p would yield great looking results at minimal additional cost for rendering, so we did. This didn't actually affect simulation at all, aided the tracking and ultimately made our lives a tiny bit easier than if we had stayed in SD land.

Part 4 - The Tech
Editing - Final Cut Pro
Compositing - Shake 2.51, Shake 4.1 & Flame
Matchmoving - Boujou
Liquid Simulation - Real Flow 4

3D Tech
Mesh generation came at an average of a million or so polygons per frame, which saved into Realflow's standard 3D format would work out to around 50mb per frame of mesh (which totally prevented realtime playback of any simulated scenes).

We chose to use Realflow's excellent mesh building purely because it was far more efficient than anything our 3D Max pipeline offered us.

After certain shots had several revisions, renders and multiple sequential mesh files, the total job ended up taking up 927gb of space, which we were then told to clean up. Total job space would have ended up around 1.5tb otherwise.

We used Mental Ray exclusively from 3D Max, and stuck fiercely to direct lighting methods only. Max 9's architectural materials also proved to be invaluable for matching the specular highlights.