Motosacoche 2023 Launch Teaser
The two soft drive belts (one for the crank and one for the electric engine) are procedurally modeled and animated in Houdini. This was one of the important reasons to choose Houdini rather than Unreal Engine for this project.
There are two versions of the bike. The blue one is a limited edition.
lookdev
each part (over 1500) was retopo-ed, UV-ed and shaded individually! I also modeled myself a few missing parts.
I rigged the entire model, from the brakes to the steering, seat, and the two-drive system (pedaling + electric engine with belts). The cables are simulated with vellum (move when the handlebar moves). Unfortunately, the finale Ad did not include it!
I initially wanted to make an electricity FX for the energy, but the client found this look too "gamy"... 3d artists often underestimate how much people outside our industry don't like the "unreal engine" look and only want 100% photorealism...
So I went for another idea: a shockwave propagation (using particles) which I would use as a 3d refraction distortion (water-like)
the video was created in a 9/16 aspect ratio, designed from the beginning for social media campaigns. This allows for unusual camera framing
design in shapr3d
for cad assemblies, I have written a python script that generate a hierarchy of geo nodes with pivots from the alembic parts
each material is textured in substance before shading in redshift
the sound design is a critical and often overlooked aspect of short motion design pieces like this one
the are several parts of the model that are procedurally designed: the welding of the frame, the drive belts, the cables and...
the tires are also procedurally created in order to deform (drop shape) on the contact with the ground. This deformation uses a mix of procedural topology, animated FFD and reprojection. A heavy toll on the CPU.
the screen animation is created in after effects and shaded with multiple layers (I used the new checkboard procedural shader in latest version of redshift to create the matrix of leds (pixels))... nobody will see it but details matter in luxury :-)
Client project produced entirely solo; from modeling (+translation from CAD), to retopo, rigging, uving, animation, VFX, simulations, procedural modeling, staging, lookdev, texturing, shading, rendering, compositing, and sound design!
Primarily using Houdini.