Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 150 Beyond Expectations

In mid-February, the special effects team sent in new technical feedback.

The problem arose in a direction that had not been fully anticipated before—the timing synchronization of actors’ limb movements and camera movements in a weightless state. This type of shot, which is about seventy seconds long in the script, requires actors to rotate at a constant speed as they pass through a cabin passage, while the camera moves at a non-uniform speed along a parallel axis.

This combination was classified as "high-risk" in the previous technical assessment, but the team still hopes to complete it in the actual filming.

The initial tests consistently failed to narrow the deviation to within the expected range due to a phase misalignment between the actors' limb movements and the camera's motion curve. The visual effects team tried various methods, including adjusting the actors' starting angles, modifying the camera's acceleration curve, and stretching the timeline in post-production, but none of these achieved acceptable consistency in the 70-second shot's synchronization. They noted the current data and remaining deviation in their feedback and suggested dividing the shot into two or shorter segments, compositing them into a continuous motion in post-production.

Three days after receiving the feedback, Luo Jinnian went to the testing site. At that time, the team was conducting the latest round of testing with a camera platform with a rail and a stuntman. Luo Jinnian stood next to the monitor and watched the playback of the two tests, his gaze falling on the relationship between the relative position of the actor's arms and the speed of the camera movement in the picture, without making any notes immediately.

After the tests, he reviewed the visual effects team's data records and feedback, noticing a detail: in tests with minimal deviation, there was an approximately constant proportional relationship between the actor's limb movement curves and the camera's motion curves on the vertical axis. He proposed a hypothesis: could the actor's swaying movements and the camera's motion curves be designed as independent functions generated based on the same physical parameters, rather than one tracking the other? This hypothesis wasn't based on the script or visual intent, but on the constant proportional line in the data he had just reviewed—if the movements at both ends were driven by the same source parameter, they might naturally synchronize, thus reducing the complexity of post-production coordination.

That afternoon, the visual effects team readjusted the driving parameters based on this assumption, simultaneously linking the actor's swaying frequency and the camera's movement speed to a common time variable, and conducted a new round of testing that same day. The test results showed that the synchronization deviation remained within the threshold, while the image maintained its compositional integrity, requiring no post-production editing assistance. The visual effects team noted the new driving parameters in their records, along with a note: This solution is based on the existing technical framework and does not involve equipment modifications or process changes.

The special effects team added a note to the log: "This solution was not previously considered, mainly because the two movements were set by different departments and did not share the same time reference during the parameter generation phase."

Luo Jinnian later archived that feedback in the project folder.

On his way back to his accommodation, he reconsidered his speech at the trade show. The content of the speech itself didn't need modification, but he realized that he had presupposed a relatively fixed stance and hadn't fully considered that the technical solutions themselves might contain unrecognized relational structures. This made him realize that possibilities he had never considered before could always be rediscovered at an unexpected moment, existing in an unnamed form within the data he was working with before being discovered. He noted this realization down, but never expressed it publicly.

The project continued to progress according to the established timeline, with no signs of delays or interruptions at key milestones.

In mid-March, the project entered the stage of setting up the main scenes. The physical model of the stargate tunnel had already entered the on-site installation process after the first round of testing. The set design team built a tunnel section about 20 meters long in the factory shed, with the width consistent with the previous conceptual design. The wall material used was a composite material that could display directional textures under specific lighting conditions. The supporting structure of the tunnel section was based on the previously approved structural calculation scheme and had been verified by load testing.

Luo Jinnian went to the set construction site that Wednesday. The set design team was adjusting the stitching order of the wall textures and testing the visual continuity of the textures under different lighting angles. He walked along the passageway from the entrance to the end and stopped to examine a seam. The seam's visibility met the standard under perpendicular incident light, but at a certain angle of incidence, the seam's boundary appeared in the image. The set design team leader said that this problem had been under investigation, but due to limitations in the texture continuity of the existing materials and the precision of the stitching process, it had never been completely resolved. They had tried adjusting the stitching order and direction, and also tried adding a covering layer to eliminate the seam, but due to material costs and time constraints, they hadn't found a suitable solution yet.

Luo Jinnian paused at that spot for a while, observing how the gap changed under different lighting angles. He then suggested adjusting the angle of the main light source at the top of the passageway section to align it parallel to the direction of the wall seam, while adding several sets of weak side fill lights to weaken edge contrast. He added that this was merely a speculation based on current observations and might not be sufficient to solve the problem, but it could be considered for testing. The set design team conducted tests that afternoon and found that the solution significantly reduced the visibility of the seam in the frame. The set design team subsequently adjusted the installation position and angle of the light sources, recording the test results in the set design plan as a reference for subsequent installation work.

Over the following week, the camera platform used to film dynamic scenes in weightlessness underwent another round of software calibration. The sensor data used in the tests was compiled into a parameter comparison table, indicating the numerical differences in motion trajectories before and after calibration. The deviation between the calibrated motion trajectory and the predetermined path was reduced to less than half of the original value, meeting the project team's accuracy requirements. The director of photography completed a set of calibration shots on the day of the test and marked the new data in the log. After reviewing the data, Luo Jinnian confirmed its usability and noted in the remarks column that the data had been incorporated into subsequent filming references.

He noticed a noticeable shift in his approach to dealing with such unexpected phenomena. Previously, he tended to avoid uncertainty by adding constraints or narrowing the problem definition; now, he prefers to look for untapped relational variables within existing frameworks. This change is related to his recent experiences—discovering that two motion systems can share the same source parameter when solving synchronization problems, and finding that the light source angle can substitute for material and process improvements when adjusting seam visibility. These experiences improved his ability to identify "adjustable terms." He didn't specifically document this change, but in subsequent judgments, he found himself able to find related variable relationships more quickly, rather than waiting for others to provide complete verification data before making a judgment.

Finally, a project briefing was held.

Luo Jinnian gave an overall presentation on the project's progress at the meeting.

The demo clips submitted by the special effects team are now playing on the screen.

After the presentation, Director Qin expressed his approval of the project's progress and milestones, and did not propose any adjustments.

Luo Jinnian refocused her attention and began to organize the work plan for the next stage.

He did not revisit the previous issues, nor did he offer any additional explanations after the report.

All the information that needs to be explained has already been clearly stated in the periodic records and reports, and those records themselves constitute sufficient evidence and do not need to be stated again.

I closed my laptop and walked in the direction of where I live.

The streetlights illuminated the road evenly, and his shadow fell in front of him, keeping pace with his steps without shifting.