Shapeshifting Car Mimics Any Chassis Design

I think this is the only time I’ve actually been excited about false advertising.

The Blackbird—which really should be called the chameleon, the octopus, or the Mystique-mobile—is a car designed specifically for creating automotive media.

Its length can be adjusted by up to 4 ft and its width by up to 10 in. It accepts wheel lugs from all manufacturers and its suspension can be changed in height, rigidity and dampening. Perhaps most impressively, the car’s electric motor can be programmed to emulate the acceleration and shift points of other vehicles.

(Image courtesy of The Mill.)

All of this is done to enable filmmakers to shoot videos of a car on location without actually needing the physical car. Instead, photorealistic computer-generated (CG) renderings can be overlaid on the Blackbird in post-production, creating the illusion that the video was shot with a different car.

In addition, the Blackbird is capable of high dynamic range imagery, using a stabilized camera array and 3D laser scanning. The resulting data can then be used to create a virtual reconstruction of the car’s environment. These reconstructions enable more realistic CG renderings, as well as opening up new possibilities for virtual reality applications.

(Image courtesy of The Mill.)

The Blackbird was created by The Mill, a post-production and visual effects company, in partnership with JemFX, a special effects design and fabrication company.

Alistair Thompson, international executive vice president of The Mill, said, “We can unequivocally say that The Mill Blackbird is a tool to solve real problems for the advertising industry. It is no vanity project. It was the genuine needs of our advertising clients that made the Blackbird happen and their constant support and input has shaped its design and made it the game changing innovation that it has become.”

For more information, visit The Mill website.