Multiplayer: A SCAD Atlanta Web Series Currently in Post Production

The SCAD 2020 year was all virtual due to COVID, and although it was hard for many to study online, that year’s benefits are showing this Fall 2021 quarter with students on ground. Before COVID, collaborations between the SCAD Atlanta and Savannah campuses were few to none. Virtual zoom meetings and the interaction of students through platforms such as discord allowed student films to work on post-production from anywhere around the world. Over the summer quarter, SCAD Atlanta’s new web series entitled “Multiplayer” is one of those films. This quarter, students from both Atlanta and Savannah can work on post-production for its visual effects.  

    This 5 episode web series is about the journey of 3 top job gaming applicants as they compete for an ultimate tech gaming job… and their lives! Not much can be said about the episodes; otherwise, there will be spoilers. But what we can talk about is the process and pipeline for this collaborative project. This web series focuses on 3D modeling, green screen keying, tracking, lighting, particles, compositing, and integration. Just about everything in the visual effects field this project needs! In order to organize and delegate the many tasks needed for this project, this web series was made into an SDGM 560 class (a collaborative project class). Professor McComas from SCAD Atlanta is in charge of the class’s organization, while the rest is up to the students to complete tasks. There are student leads for the different visual effect needs such as 2D modeling, 3D modeling, effects, and compositing. Each team has a different role for this project, but everyone collaborates to create a final product.

    The four teams may seem very different, but each relies on one another to finish the tasks. Not much can be said about these episodes without giving away the plot, but we can talk about each team’s tasks. In the web series, there is an episode where the characters are in an entirely 2D environment. This requires the 3D team to create a rough block out for the 2D team to paint over the parallax environment. Then compositing takes the 2D team’s environment to put the characters in front of a green screen to make it look as though they are in that complete hand-drawn environment. The effects team also has a handful to do in this episode by adding glitching effects, particle simulations, and other force field effects to enhance the motions of certain character actions in the series. 

    “Multiplayer” has many visual effects shots, and students will continue to work on it over the upcoming winter and spring quarters. If you are interested in helping out with either compositing or effects for this production in the coming quarters, you can contact Professor McComas at amccomas@scad.edu for inquiry.