For a successful market debut of its new Scirocco, VW relied on an innovative Web special with all the information for a remake of the legendary sports coupe of the 80’s. The underlying creative concept was developed by Tribal DDB, the Hamburg-based multi-channel agency, which in turn retained MACKEVISION, the 3D specialists in Stuttgart, for producing the image content. By Joachim Lincke
The Web special, under the URL www.scirocco.de, was intended to familiarize potential buyers with the new Volkswagen sports coupe even months before its official market launch. Extensive imagery and details introducing the new Scirocco generation, as well as action-packed video sequences of the Scirocco, were to support the model introduction and to shorten the wait from April 2008 until the sales launch on August 29, 2008. The creative concept for the Scirocco online feature was developed by the agency team of Tribal DDB which relied on the competencies and innovations of the CGI specialists at MACKEVISION for the production of the image content. This concept, which was designed to make use of today’s capabilities in CGI, animation and visual effects, was aimed at a multi-level target group. New content and animations were released in three consecutive phases: Design ("Style"), Capabilities (“Performance”) and Driving Pleasure (“Experience”). These phases progressively introduced old and new Scirocco aficionados to the features and characteristics of this new model. The focal point and navigational object of the presentation was a glass cube, centered on the web page, which allowed users to interactively set the vehicle in motion as a 360° model. Moving the mouse allowed the user to activate any desired viewing angle as well as various animations.
The Making of Phase 1: “Style”
In the "Style" phase, the visitor can choose from four videos on the design of the vehicle; images of the Scirocco moving in a city-light setting with dynamic camera tracking, or perhaps the car interior in extremely realistic detail in terms of equipment, appointments and craftsmanship. Depending on the direction in which the user navigates the cube, a new, more in-depth video sequence is set in motion to further familiarize the visitor with the various facets of the new Scirocco. On one hand, the sporty, sleekly elegant contour of the vehicle was highlighted by staging 360° camera movements.
On the other hand, a fascinating flight of the camera through the interior was used to convey the excitement of driving an innovative sports coupe. All four videos have a touch of a futuristic flair in a nocturnal urban setting accented by the animated skyline of Las Vegas.
The video sequences, as well as the entire image content of this Web special, were generated using 3ds Max and Nuke. This project departed from the traditional production steps in a 3D program whereby the complete virtual surroundings would be modeled, textures and shades overlaid and the views rendered, with merely the colors modified in the composition process. In implementing Phase 1 of the Web special, Nuke used simple geometries within the 3D space to draw the outlines of virtual Las Vegas.
Developing the camera’s travel through urban boulevards in Nuke’s 3D Space
Next, the Nuke-internal camera projected high-resolution textures onto the geometries to create an air of urban character. Each animation path for the 3ds Max camera was exported, imported and composed in Nuke using a proprietary tool specially developed by MACKEVISION. This is how the development team made it possible even at an early stage to build the entire city environment for the vehicle in Nuke’s 3D space. For a better spatial positioning of the vehicle already at this stage, a low-resolution model version of the Scirocco was loaded into the Nuke scenario.
Street Canyon Using Nuke, a street scene is created in which the car is ultimately to be pictured with good image quality
Texturing the urban boulevard and building façades in Nuke
Mackevision’s approach offered significant advantages. For example, subsequent changes did not require 3D re-rendering of building sections but only an adjustment of the projection in a central location of the Nuke composition system. In this fashion it was possible to modify and configure streets, buildings and textures shot-by-shot almost in real time.
These views, constituting the vehicle environment, were imported into 3ds Max as obj.s and with textures, later to be adapted, modified and optimized for the vehicle rendering. Thus, all that needed to be additionally rendered in the 3D space was the vehicle itself, the shading and various street elements. Finally, in the composition process, the 3D-rendered vehicle elements and the Nuke-generated views of the surroundings were merged and staged. Also, throughout the process chain, continually adjusted color corrections were made. Paying homage to the Scirocco of the 80s, the urban neon lights of the 80s were reinterpreted and abstracted for the new vehicle edition. To that end, the developers at MACKEVISION availed themselves of traditional features such as glints, glows, blurs and light effects.
The final image, including the desired street environment, was now complete. As an add-on to the video sequences we generated downloadable high-resolution wall papers for the Scirocco fan club..
Surface Structuring The subsequent texturing of the urban scene with the building façades was also done in Nuke
Skyline The virtual city’s skyline was created in the 3D space of Nuke. That was followed by the addition of textures
