realtime:uk

Amaze

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Leading agency Amaze commissioned RealtimeUK to produce an animation to demonstrate one of the leading-edge new functions of the Lexus 600h.

The new Lexus LS 600h features the world’s first application of low-beam LED headlight technology. These jewel-like lights are not only beautiful, they also offer exceptional illumination and considerably improved durability. The headlight designs also incorporate the Intelligent Adaptive Front-lighting System (IAFS). This automatically swivels the headlights by up to 15 degrees into approaching corners, providing superior visibility.

Amaze and Lexus required an animated sequence that exhibits the functions and benefits of the IAFS.
To mirror the Lexus brand values, the animation needed to be both simple and elegant, whilst achieving a sophisticated ‘leading-edge’ execution that reflects their position as technological leaders. Lexus not only required an enjoyable and impressive animation, it had to be informative and demonstrate the difference between having the IAFS and not having it.

With an initial shot list from Amaze we set about creating a storyboard and the forest environment setting. Following sign off, an animatic was produced and approved, meaning we could move onto rigging the car from the supplied CAD data.

To demonstrate the internal workings of the car we created an x-ray style shot. For this all the internal components of the car, including the wheels, axels and suspension were rigged and then rendered using fresnel fall out materials. This pushed the colour of the car to the edge so that the outline of the vehicle was maintained but the internal workings could still be seen.

Accompanying the brief, Lexus provided us with white papers which detailed the limitations of the IAFS. To stay in line with this we implemented a limit controller on the headlights to guide how far and when the lights would turn.

The forest environment was produced using V-Ray proxy objects. This method was utilised to help with the rendering time of the animation, which was increased due to the amount of geometry and sheer number of trees there were in the scene.
Amaze and Lexus both felt that the final animation was highly successful and that it effectively conveyed the benefits and functions of the new Adaptive Front Lighting System in a simple yet stylish manner.

Tony Cutler, European Marketing Manager at Lexus commented that "the brief was fulfilled superbly and we are extremely pleased with the effectiveness and success of the final animation. We would be delighted to work with the team at RealtimeUK again in the future."

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Amaze