INTRODUCTION

This was a rare opportunity to create a set of stills and not worry about the usual implications of animating elements during my usual motion design work. These process images collected along the way should give a quick overview of the workflow during this fun project.

After the shoot in Paris with Nick&Chloé we (Henrik, Julius, Marian, Andreas & myself) spent a week doodling and scribbling over the initial edit creating hundreds of images ranging from subtle and humorous, to disgusting and unpublishable!

ENVIRONMENT

Because we weren't sure about what form or material the CG elements would take early on in the project, we recreated the sets from the shoot with good amount of detail. This ensured we would have physical environments for reflection, refraction, bounce light and shadows.

Henrik took a huge amount of reference images in Paris and brought everything back to Berlin for us to rebuild the rooms with enough accuracy for almost any eventuality. Room and furniture dimensions were measured, light positions and wattage were noted, and textures were photographed.

We quickly modeled the scene in C4D with boxes and made simple materials and light setups in Vray to be able to work in a 'physical' virtual set. This made it far easier to create 3D forms that interact with the model and environment than if we relied only on a HDRI for reflections etc.

SCULPT AND RENDER

Based on the sketches that were chosen, quick parametric configurations were created in C4D then exported to 3D Coat. We then used the great voxel sculpting tools available to create very high resolution meshes with great control and speed. We always try to reinforce a sense of scale with contrast in shape and detail in relation to the existing elements in the shot.

The only real technical challenge was tweaking the ights from their 'physically correct' values to achieve a result that sat well within the photograph.

RETOUCH

We made rough Photoshop comps with our renders, setting up masks as well depth and shadow passes then handed the files over to the hugely talented 'La Souris sur le Gateau' who made our images look incredible.

View the full project.