Client: NA | Agency: NA | Photographer: NA | Production: Primate Postproduction
Audi Forest
work: Full CG scene development, custom road shader, SpeedTree vegetation, VRayScatter, animation setup, compositing
position: Head of CGI
role: CG Supervisor / Main 3D Artist
Research and development project focused on testing new workflows, plugins, scripts and pipelines by creating a complete full CG scene. A road winding through a forest with an Audi driving through multiple animated shots. Built in Maya, rendered with VRay, composited in Nuke and Photoshop. Five species of conifer trees (five variations each) were created in SpeedTree with wind animation, developed in dedicated lookdev scenes. The main scene was built in layers per camera shot with the landscape roughed out. Trees were scattered via mask and loaded at render time. Additional grass, bushes, rocks and debris from Megascans filled gaps along the roadside. The road was built from a spline curve using a custom road shader script, allowing all values and controls to be adjusted intuitively in the frontend with the underlying multi-layer shader updating on the fly. High-res asphalt textures were mixed within the shader to eliminate UV tiling, with exact texture setups for normal, displacement, specular and roughness channels. Road markings with custom masks for European and US country roads, plus puddle controls, were integrated into the shader. Lighting used an adapted HDR for strong directional moonlight with reflection and fill lights. The car and tires were animated along a spline curve using a custom MEL script, with a custom multi-layer car paint shader. Animation compositing was done in Nuke using a custom template; stills were finished in Photoshop.
Case Study
Goal:
Research and development project to test and develop new workflows, plugins, scripts and pipelines in a full CG production context.
Approach:
Five conifer tree species (five variations each) were created in SpeedTree with wind animation. Trees were scattered via mask using VRayScatter and loaded at render time. The road was built from a spline curve with a custom multi-layer road shader script featuring blended hi-res asphalt textures (eliminating UV tiling), configurable road markings (European/US) and integrated puddle controls. Vegetation was supplemented with grass, bushes, rocks and debris from Megascans. The car was animated along a spline using a custom MEL script with a custom multi-layer car paint shader. Lighting combined an adapted HDR with directional moonlight and reflection/fill lights. Tools: Maya, VRay, VRayScatter, SpeedTree, Nuke, Photoshop.
Result:
Full CG animated scene with multiple shots, demonstrating the viability of the tested production workflows and tools.
My Contribution:
Complete project lead: custom road shader development and scripting, SpeedTree vegetation creation and lookdev, full scene assembly, lighting, car animation setup (MEL script), lookdev, shading, compositing in Nuke, 2D post-production in Photoshop.
