Supernova Genesis
With over 6.5 million viewers, Supernova Genesis is shaping up to be one of the biggest boxing broadcasts of the year so far. Have a look at how we managed two-camera AR, including a virtual set extension and camera flight, something typically reserved only for studio installs.
Quick Facts:
- Two-camera AR, 40 ft jib and Eagle Eye cable camera
- Vanilla Unreal 5.6
- stYpe RedSpy trackers on both cameras
- Lenovo P8s with RTX 5080s and Blackmagic Duo 2s
Streaming Statistics
See the full Netflix stats here.
Quick rundown:
- 5.5 million sustained viewers over the four-hour broadcast on Netflix
- More viewers than Paul vs Tyson in Mexico (Netflix's biggest live event around the world to date)
- #1 most-streamed in 12 countries
Everything AR Graphics Are Not
We had a pretty simple brief from the client on this project: they wanted everything that other clients would say no to.
The first thing that came to mind was a virtual set extension. This is where a set, typically news or talk show, is extended beyond the physical limits of the building by adding fake space using Unreal. It's a common trick we employ, though it is generally used sparingly and is a cousin to green-screen virtual sets and XR.
Clients rarely do it as it is technically demanding. The AR camera with the set extension then becomes your "master" camera for that view, which means 100% uptime and can give some directors pause. In a studio setting, it also means matching audio delays on non-AR cameras to the AR cameras, along with other workflow changes.
Luckily, Daramah, the client, was game for anything.
The idea was this infinitely large space above the screens to match the cyberpunk aesthetic of the broadcast, like something from The Matrix or Cyberpunk.
Graphics
Here's a look at some of the graphics (all Unreal) we created for the show:
Show Opening
The Idea was for a somnewhat marvel esque intro. This was used twice. Once at the top of the show and again for the start of the Netflix broadcast.
Tale of the Tape
Interestingly, the producers had referred to this as Fight Technical Information. This is, in my opinion, a better name. Tale of the Tape is how it is referred to in American productions.
Tale of the Tape means the tale (or story) a tape measure tells about the fight. This is despite the fact that some of the included statistics aren't measured with a tape measure. Weight and age are the most common examples. By the end of the production, we had everyone calling it Tale of the Tape, for better or worse.
VS
This is a much simpler graphic, primarily used while the presenters are talking about the fight as something visually interesting to cut to.
Round Number
This is a staple amongst combat sports broadcasts. One problem we always run into, is the direction in which text should rotate.
English (and Spanish) read left to right, so you always want a ticker or any kind of moving text to go in the opposite direction. This way, your eyes don't have to "chase" words across the screen to read them. Instead, you can simply look in the same spot and let the words come to you. This is especially important for graphics that do not stay on screen for very long, such as the round numbers.
Musical Acts
The headline musical acts all received a 3D treatment of their logos for display. These are probably the easiest graphics ever: just put them somewhere and let the cameras do pretty flybys of them. However simple they were, they were extremely effective.
For Ozuna's performance, the virtual set extension was turned off at the producer's request.
Fighter Walkouts
One of the coolest graphics we got to build was the fighter walkouts. These were bespoke AR elements and animations specifically for the main and co-main fighters to accompany their walkouts, and it is where we had the most creative freedom as we could break from the main cyberpunk show look.
Operating
Unsurprisingly, I do not speak Spanish. This made for an interesting operating experience. While I know the Spanish words for a 10-1 countdown, that's about it. So I relied heavily on the show rundown and mainly guessed what graphic should be up when. Luckily, the amazing Eagle Eye operators spoke exceptional English, though I had no clue what the director was doing. There are also some words that even the most fluent English-as-a-second-language speakers don't understand. I'll blame my more British upbringing for attempting to use words like "amongst."
This was compounded by the fact that our AR outputs were the main jib/cable cam feeds being used, leaving very little time to check graphics before going on air. We did have ample rehearsal time, but I still like to see a graphic before it goes on air.
Operating from front of house was also no easy task. 3 days later and my voice still hasn't returned fully.
Do Your Own AR
This video covers how AR is done in Unreal for productions like this one. It's the same workflow we used, along with remote control (Used through a custom app) for operating and controlling the scene.
Additonal Photos
All and all an amazingly fun production, Mexico City is an awsome place, the Girraphic crew is always a blast to hang with and this was a unique production that doesn't come along very often.
Watch the full broadcast
See the full broadcast on Netflix