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Another piece of internal R&D in an effort to continue building the CGI car portfolio. It’s an area that we have been keen to expand on for a while now and provides a perfect platform for all the folk at Shadowplay to showcase their creative skill sets. Pulling on photography, CGI and retouching it’s a great way to oil the old cogs for that production of pipeline.

An early start was needed to get down to London and catch the city in its twilight hours. Two and a bit hours later into what would still be considered a very early morning by some of Shadowplay staff, we were on the tube heading for Liverpool Street. The Sherpas were loaded with the relevant photographic gear as we began our ascent to the proposed backplate.

As we reached our final destination, the well rehearsed routine of the morning commute was beginning to set in. Bags where quickly dropped and the frame was composed. Setting up a camera amongst the throng of people, we waited for a moment when the traffic cleared and snapped away.

We had the backplate in the bag. The next steps were in motion to capture the 360 HDRi for the CGI artist. Getting the camera as close to the spot of the CGI car as possible involved a few near misses with the big red London buses but we eventually wrapped up the shoot. Making the necessary notes to enable the CGI artist to place the CGI car perfectly within the scene, it was time to hotfoot it across London and crack on with the rest of the days meetings.

Back in the studio the next day at a far more reasonable time we flung the files into the CGI cauldron and waited for the witchcraft/magic to happen. Using the HDRi gives us a 360 reflection of the backplate which allows us to imbed into the CGI car the actual reflections of the environment – thus bringing to the table a level of realism that allows the CGI car to look like it was actually there.

Once the guys have thrown out the renders from 3ds Max it’s time to head over to the old faithful servant that is Photoshop and let the retouchers bring the image together. Combining all the renders and backplate, our retouchers work to bed the CGI car in and make sure that the they give it those finishing touches that make the car look photoreal. After many hours of tinkering, enough cups of tea to keep a small indian plantation in business for a few years, you finally end up with something similar to the above. Now onto the next one.