Maya Artists: Marc Greyvenstein - McLaren 570S Project

Marc Greyvenstein is a 3D Artist at The Mill in London; a studio home to world-class visual effects, cutting-edge technology and creative excellence. With over 15-years of industry experience, specialising in lighting, texturing and look development, Marc takes us through his workflow when re-creating the McLaren 570S model, lit stunningly with HDR Light Studio.

McLaren 570S model created by Rex Fu

What influenced you to take on the challenge of the McLaren 570S model?
I have completed some automotive rendering in the past, but I hadn’t focused on it for quite a few years. During this time, I was learning Maya so I felt this was a good opportunity to understand Maya along with HDR Light Studio, and hopefully add a nice piece of work to my portfolio.

How did HDR Light Studio help you when lighting the McLaren 570S?
Generally, you could spend hours trying to get the right position, shape, intensity, and texture on a light for the desired effect that you’re looking for. HDR Light Studio speeds this process up dramatically. There is also a great library of lights and textures to help with the realism of the reflections.

What other software did you use alongside HDR Light Studio on this project?
Maya and Arnold were used for the texturing and rendering of the McLaren 570S. I had been wanting to learn Maya and Arnold for quite some time, and this was the perfect project to start transferring my skills from another 3D package. Then finally, I utilised Photoshop for combining the layers and final compositing.

What challenges did you face when working on this model and how did you overcome them?
Sometimes it can be difficult to place a light in the correct physical location to get the reflection that you want. This is where HDR Light Studio’s ability to create lights in Maya really helps. At certain angles, I was really struggling to get some nice reflections on the rims and tires. Being able to place physical lights in your scene with HDR Light Studio solved this. Placing physical lights below the floor gave the reflections I was looking for and allowed me to turn off shadows on these lights, whilst still having the generated HDRI effect for the scene.

”There simply isn’t a faster or more effective way to light vehicles or products for presentation.” – Marc Greyvenstein

We would like to thank Marc for sharing his fantastic work with us. To view his portfolio visit www.marcgreyvenstein.com.

Learn more about Car Studio Lighting for CGI