A sleek black M1 forms a dark dynamic wedge that interplays with the shapes of an abstract sculpture.
Walking around the sand and aligning the massive elements with the car, the viewer can get lost in this creative exploration game. Sometimes the car forms a striking diagonal, sometimes it’s the focal point in recurring framing elements.
The desert’s like a canvas for the photographer’s eye to juxtapose the pale concrete artwork– created purely for art in this space, scoured by wind and sand – and the deep hot black angularity of the car that’s been driven to it, a machine built with function and movement in mind.
These images show the photographer’s own interpretation of what each sculpture is trying to say, as well as how they can counterpoint the car to tell a new story.
How we did it:
This series is a collaborative experiment by photographer Nick Meek with post-production studio Recom Farmhouse. We set out to see how far it’s possible to push the boundaries of photographic realism in full CGI.We created a set with the correct natural terrain, materials and light, which the photographer could then ‘walk’ around, choosing lenses, angles and sun position, but always within the real world parameters that the photographer would have shot.The wedge-shaped BMW M1 in classic gloss black sets off the rough concrete forms. In every choice – car positioning, angles, lighting, rendering, grain, we chose to be as accurate as possible to analogue photography.Graded with meticulous care, the series is as close to the film grade as possible.Finally, we carefully scanned and graded original film borders to make a true, respectful recreation of analogue photography in 100% CGI.This is a series that’s a world away from flamboyant retouching – we have framed it as absolute photographic classicism, to show that working in CGI can embrace everything we love about photography. See the whole series on our site here.
Behind the scenes video:
Credits
Post Production Team: Recom Farmhouse London
CGI Artist: George Russell
Post Artist: Kate Brown, Aljaz Bezjak
Project Team
Photographer: Nick Meek
Creative Supervision: Kate Brown
Join us in Morocco on the location shoot, and in London for the CGI and retouching, in this video:
Photographer Nick Meek and Recom Farmhouse’s Christoph Bolten travelled together to Hannsjörg Voth’s extraordinary desert land art installations in Morocco: Himmelstreppe, Goldene Spirale and Stadt des Orion.
With a profound respect for Voth’s original vision, they envisioned innovative elements that would both honour his intention and contribute to the immersive experience offered by these extraordinary desert works.
During a series of dawn shoots, Nick Meek and Christoph Bolten engaged in thought-provoking conversations about how their imagery of the structures could evolve, exploring ideas that would preserve the integrity of Voth’s vision while pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.
Developing ideas and possibilities of augmenting the beauty and impact of Voth’s creations, the Maserati concept car in gold was the outcome. The smooth angles and precise lines of the car juxtaposed against the otherworldly environment of the sculptures form a vignette of adventure, a fragment of a story that’s still to be told.
TECHNICAL PROCESS: FULL CGI WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND
Nick shot on Kodak Portra 400 film with a Gibellini ACN45v2 camera, custom made for him, giving us great references to re-create that beautiful filmic look.
While on set we captured plenty of HDR domes with a LizardQ rig, enabling us to seamlessly integrate CG objects into the backplate photos with accurate lighting and reflections.
In Recom Farmhouse’s London studio, CGI artist Anna Toropova gathered reference to perfect the golden car, and worked closely with Nick to position it – here’s a glimpse behind the scenes of her R&D:
With the render passes completed from Anna, retoucher Kate Brown started to composite the car.
The wintery desert light, in combination with the golden car paint, provided her with a solid foundation for creating the desired look, and a realistic bloom and film grain.
Retoucher Kate Brown:
“Initial grading work began in Capture One before the retouching had even started, to get the very best out of the image. Having all the different passes for the car gives us the most flexibility to enhance the car and make it fully embedded into the shot, making sure the colours match to the environment, so the car shape is enhanced without feeling over retouched. Meticulous care was taken to create and enhance beautiful glows and pings on the car from the sun. making it shine like a piece of jewellery in the shot.
Before the start a project we try to study the photography as close as possible to understand how to make the CGI feel as photographic as possible. Imperfections of photography like lens aberrations, flares, blooms from highlights and grain are incredibly important to make something feel photographic.”
Recom Farmhouse worked with agency Uncommon and photographer Christopher Anderson on this bold and brilliant campaign for British Airways. Minimalist and bold, the billboard’s eleven executions reverse the classic ‘out of the plane window’ shot to capture the wonder on passenger’s faces.
“Only truly iconic brands can say less.” – Nils Leonard, co-founder at Uncommon
With the daring crops and the strength and simplicity of the idea, it was of absolute importance to create immediate belief in the mind of the viewer. Most of us have experienced that moment of exceptional light and beauty when flying, and the recreation of it needed to be perfect, so the light places you in that moment. We brought the warmth and reality of this beautiful aerial light to the surface of a CG fuselage, whilst maintaining the flexibility with the airline’s livery that was vital for the audacious cropping.
Here’s how we did it .
Preparation was absolutely paramount; photographer Christopher Anderson is known for his treatment of sunlight so we tested the lighting in CG to see where it needed to be in order to light the model’s face with those deep windows. We then did a second session with him to work on the details making the sunlight natural. Post Artist Kate Brown created an initial grade from these sessions with stand-ins, which informed the actual shoot.Many of the models were BA staff, who were shot on a set specially built for one window’s width of fuselage.
Creative Director of Recom Farmhouse London Christoph Bolten and CG artist George Russell joined the creative team at Uncommon as Christopher Anderson shot the talent. They took HDRI spheres of the environment and in-depth lighting references for the talent.Although the shots appear simple, in order for them to bring the sense of the moment, there’s a huge amount of subtle detail.
With the creatives at Uncommon, we thought about the story of each flight: when you wake up, what do you want to see? Perhaps a beautiful mid-flight moment in a cloudscape, perhaps the first glimpse of your destination? And how do we tell that story through light and reflections?
CG artist George Russell made different environments – a city, clouds, sunset over fields, sunset over the ocean. Each environment is reflected in the fuselage and brings its own subtle differences to the light. He also worked meticulously to position the livery correctly for each crop, ensuring it was always visible and unaffected by the sunlight’s movement over the metal.
At Recom Farmhouse London, over breakfast meetings with the fabulous creative team at Uncommon, the project came to life. Post Artist Kate Brown composited the talent into the CG fuselages, and brought the elements together with a happy grade – simultaneously warm and real. Each individual crop was finessed, including site-specific ones.
Some shots needed specific CG work to frame the livery correctly on the plane – absolutely vital for this concept. CG Artist George developed an innovative way to move these around quickly and easily for the creative team to get the perfect impact.Look out for the billboards creating a stir all over the UK right now – a campaign that’s flying high in iconic locations from Piccadilly Circus to Edinburgh Airport
Photographer: Christopher Anderson
Photographer’s Agent: Wefolk
Post Production: Recom Farmhouse
CG Director: Christoph Bolten / Recom Farmhouse London
CG Artist: George Russell / Recom Farmhouse London
Post Artists: Kate Brown / Recom Farmhouse London, Steven Orts / Recom Farmhouse NYC
A fantastic collaboration as always with Thomas Brown on a wildly conceptual project for Wallpaper Magazine
The shots we made by compositing multiple plates of the landscape. In some cases the landscape was a single shot, in others alternative selects were made for skies, water or lighting on the landscape to get the best out of the image and composition.
The photographer shot plates blocking the sun on the environment so we could accurately build shadows for the LED screens. He also shot lighting plates to represent the light emitted from the LED screen on the landscapes. This was most important on the darker shots.
We were supplied the LED screen as a beauty pass by the CGI artist collaborating with Wallpaper. We placed them in the image, colour balanced, masked and built the shadows and added any extra light to the environment. We applied an LED screen texture to the screens that we built ourselves with high resolution images of a real LED screen. We blurred the CGI to match the softness and depth of field of the photography and finally added a colour grade to the image along with photographic grain. Total of 177 layers. 🙂
“The stars aligned with this project, all the things I have been experimenting with all coming together at once. Dreamy….The inspiration came from a visit to see the Hilma Af Klint exhibit at the Tate…Recom Farmhouse made everything work, everything I threw at you perfected with style and apparent ease!
These new (to me,,, ok tech bro!) tools have opened the flood gates for creativity. For this shoot I worked with some mega people to mix IRL sets by the brilliance that is Paulina_Piipponen (and props from my collection) with AI generated assets. THE hypest of watches all shot at my studio in London with Rhys Thorpe & Tom Skinner. Augmented together by the ever generous Recom Farmhouse“ – Thomas Brown
Technical approach: AI composited with photography.
These shots were made by compositing and retouching multiple plates which the photographer took of the watches, combining with the AI elements, adding post FX and grading.
Thomas generated the AI elements before the watch shoot, so he was able to shoot the watches against the printed AI image to help with some subtle reflections.
The AI was edited to make it work for each image, with a specifics approach for each shot. Some were simple – just cut out onto a new background, generate a shadow for the AI to make it feel more 3 dimensional and colour balance the elements together. Others needed to be cut out, feel transparent, be reshaped or even exist on a different colour background. For instance in the case of the crystal, all the black needed to be removed.
The watches were retouched and graded to our usual high standards for a still life watch shoot, and the results featured in GQ: “The watch world has never been so unpredictable – Rolex dropping emoji date windows? Richard Mille’s candy coloured lexes? Pixellated dials?Rather than leaning on the archive, watchmakers are embracing an influx of fresh ideas and targeting a younger collector…” – British GQ
Photographer:Thomas Brown
Post Artists :Kate Brown, Maria Luisa Calosso, Aljaz Bezjak
Recom Farmhouse London are proud to present ‘Au_XLR8R – a Full CGI charged-up collision of leading artists in car design, CGI and photography.
Thomas Brown wanted to bring his unique vision to the world of automotive photography. He often works with a set designer to create a physical world, whether it’s a sci-fi storm for Wallpaper or explorations of volume and mass for Frame. For a car, only CGI can bring this freedom of vision.
Khyzyl Saleem‘s work (@the_kyza) is a high-octane mix of the wildest aspects of car design: evolved from the explosive creativity of gaming, founded in an in-depth knowledge of the realities which is fuelled by his bodykit business, extending those outrageous modifications to real-life cars.
Recom Farmhouse ourselves are always looking for new and energising ways to fuel the possibilities of full CGI. We asked Khyzyl if he could provide one of his models for us to work with. With this model, we would create a detailed virtual studio inspired by Thomas’s references, collaborate on the creation of a series of images in this digital set, and then grade them to perfection.
The Concept
Thomas’ reference roared and fizzed with energy for us to create his desert art space in an American landscape, an environment liminal in space, time and human intervention. The car would be set as a sculpture, with an elemental quality incorporating ideas of gold, particle collisions, sculpture & precision engineering.
The Car
Khyzyl chose a 1989/91 Porsche 944 Turbo KS combined with 2022/23 992 GT3 RS Variant to be the centrepiece of the installation. Thomas’s vision was a car of pure gold in colour: a glossy and perfect mirror finish, an outrageously extravagant paint job, full of interest with the complicated lighting.
The Studio
In Recom Farmhouse’s London studio, CGI artist Aljaz Bezjak created an outdoor studio in Blender as a setting for the car, complete with supports, rigging and power supply. The site has its own ecology and geology, with scrubby desert plants against a background of far mountains. These small ‘real world’ details are what’s vital in making the environment, grounding the exhilarating fantasy in a believable reality.
“Mesmerisingly beautiful interactions between particles as they collide at high speed sending them spiralling off from their trajectories. The images chart the path of a particle, chance impacts and ultimately how the influence of others can permanently change their course. ”
– Thomas Brown
The images were ‘shot’ in a very reality-based method, according to Thomas’ usual practice. He would choose a lens and ‘walk’ around the environment just as he would in a real studio, selecting viewpoints that are coherent with those limitations. The point of view could almost be that of an art tourist, taking phone pictures of this desert installation for Instagram, but with the quality that only this attention to detail can bring.
” A roadside monument to science, energy, engineering and human creativity. Inspired by phenomena, physics, chemistry, innovation and teenage wonder. The excitement of the Gold Rush, frantic exploration and pioneering in search of fortune and the future.”
– Thomas Brown
The final images are a riveting combination of reality and fantasy, on the border of night and day. See the whole series on our site and on Behance
“In this series, I show mystical figures from a vaguely remembered tale performing cryptic gestures and ominous rituals.” – Clemens Ascher.
Collaboration with Clemens is always an extraordinary journey. In this series, retouching combines CGI with fine art.
The concept was to have the look of a 2D collage, with fabric and other props produced in 3D and then combined with the figures which were shot in the studio.
As CG artists, normally we are purely concerned with getting an image as close to reality as possible. In this case, Clemens wanted a combination of photo-realism with perspectives that are just a little ‘off’, to give a surreal, disjointed feel. This is a fine line to walk in post-production, and an exciting challenge for us, with a huge amount of creative freedom and input. The details of our renderings and lighting were very much an integral part of the artistic process.
For instance, the floors for some images are correct in 3D space for shadows etc., but their texture is applied almost like a 2D collage, without much depth in the perspective depth happening. “Amber Queen”, below, is a very good example for this effect.
Conceptually this references medieval art with its odd sizes and perspectives, which is also referred to in some of the props we created like armour and shoes. These tensions of opposites are present in many aspects of the series, producing the effect of strangeness that Clemens wanted.
Technical Process:
We began each image by setting up a CG space as a match for the camera and model, for shadows, indirect light and reflections.
Clemens provided a sketch for each figure, and from this, we began to block out shapes, exploring forms and thinking about the silhouette. With every element, we started with reality.
“Amber Queen”
Here for instance, for the armoured dress, we looked at real armour, how it’s made and jointed, and how this would wear – before working with the shapes to give it uniquely unreal, skewing asymmetry.
Substance Painter gave us the possibility to create a realistic, used appearance for our materials, and we then used our virtual lighting rig, adjusting the original settings to make them work for the completely different properties of armour.
We had previously developed our own system for making realistic amber with flaws, shapes and colour all generated from our own observations. Using this ultra-realistic natural material to make a hat was typical of the tension between reality and unreality that Clemens was looking for.
“EXORCIZE”
We generated the amber again for this image and also a mysterious mountain range to set the figures in.
For “EXORCIZE” we used Houdini again for the pink hair, inputting geometrical parameters to produce a true natural feel – a great opportunity to push this software in an unusual environment.
“MELANCHOLY”
We built this tutu in a completely different way, as if this was a real life fashion project with the correct crinoline construction underneath it. We tested this with different materials such as lace, bringing our machines very close to their computational limit!
Working like a fashion designer would, we tried many different fabrics to get the rich, ruffled texture that we wanted, to complement the severe geometric shape of the skirt itself. Here you can see two other options in lace and chiffon.
With the final decision to use a light tulle, we achieved the affect we wanted: a solid block of fabric with a light, foamy texture, that tension of opposites working again to destabilise perception. Zoom in for the details that make the difference
Grading
With the series complete in structure, the files went from Germany to Recom Farmhouse London for Creative Supervisor Kate Brown to fine tune the compositing from all the different applications, and colour grade the images.
For the grade, she took inspiration once again from paintings – ranging from medieval icons to renaissance masterpieces in oils. A simplified, painterly treatment, giving the sense of collage whilst bringing detail out of the blacks, and enhancing the sense of archetypal forms. Here’s a view of the full process from original sketch to finished image.
We’ll leave you with some thoughts from Clemens Ascher:
“Seeing these naturally raises some crucial questions: What is their message? Can they protect us? Will they guide us in our search for salvation? And can we even trust them? – Probably not. But you can worship them, let them take important decisions or cure your agonised bodies – good luck! “
Photographer: Clemens Ascher
Creative Director: Kate Brown / Recom Farmhouse London
CGI Artists: Sebastian Schierwater, Richard Jenkinson, Dennis Brinkmann / Recom Stuttgart
Post Artists: Jonas Braukmann, Stephanie O’Connor / Recom Berlin
Building the perfect stage for the super cool L100 concept car was an exciting task for our Sofia based studio Recom Blacksmith, that also specializes in full CGI environments. The goal was to create a believable salt desert with a very specific mountain range which photographer Uli Heckmann was envisioning.
Starting with a foreground detail and a base pattern, small rocks were scattered to create a more realistic salt lake effect.
Eventually, the patch was used to cover 40 square km which was a breeze using Clarisse. The scene was then optimized and reduced from 28 quadrillion polygons to a mere 4.5 quadrillion.
The next step was adding the water by cutting into the geometry. The position and shape of the glassy, shallow puddles remained flexible to be able to react to feedback from the client.
For the mountain range satellite data came in handy to build and match the photographer’s imagined scenery.
Client: Lincoln
Creative Lead: Uli Heckmann
Coordination: Tim Michel Producer
CGI: Ivo Stanev / Recom Farmhouse
Post Artists: Christian Schemer, Daniel Seiler, Frank Hoppler, Fabian Stehle / Recom Farmhouse
Supervision: Thorsten Jasper Weese / Recom Farmhouse
As Creative Director of Recom Paris, Pepê Alram returns to his French roots to combine Recom’s depth of post-production experience with the distinct spark of magic that always delivers beyond what’s expected. From Brazil, Pepe moved to Recom Farmhouse London, rising rapidly to be the creative lead on flagship retouching projects for clients like BMW, Mercedes, and Bentley.
With passion for any challenge and an eye for quality, he never forgets the main purpose of his career is communication, striving always for a more personal approach, searching out the unique focus of each project with each client, to know just what’s needed to make it shine.
Pepê brings his love of collaboration and challenge to work closely in French creative partnerships both long-standing and new, and to add a touch of Brazilian warmth to the industry here in the bleu blanc rouge.
Combining visual flair and an eye for detail with a personal approach and profound knowledge of the industry, Recom is fired up to build lasting in-depth artistic relationships immersed in the unique environment of the creative industries of Paris.
The aesthetic refinement that French creatives demand is a perfect match with our passion and commitment to those final touches that make all the difference.
Recom’s international studios give us huge, round-the-clock capacity and an incredible depth of talent, united by boundless enthusiasm for visual arts. At the same time, because each studio is small and unique, we keep the distinctive spirit of a boutique operation.
He & Me for Nissan at TBWA, with CGI by Recom Farmhouse and retouching by Recom Paris. View full project here.
We put a lot of value on strong creative relationships whether it’s photographers, art directors, editors or more unusual creative collaborations. We’re perhaps best known for high end, imaginative and aesthetic automotive work, but we love to stay fresh and creative with a huge variety of projects, for instance in fashion or fine art.
He & Me for Renault ZOE at Publicis Conseil, retouching by Recom Paris. View full project here.
We are proud to add our new French studio to the energy of London, New York, Stuttgart, Berlin and Sofia.
Recom Paris has now opened its doors. Bonjour, have a seat, take a glass of wine.
Inspired by the design features of its iconic ancestor from the 1960s, VW introduced the new fully-electric ID.Buzz during a promotion of the Disney+ Star Wars Show ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ by Lucasfilm.
Chris shot the revamped ‘Bulli’ admired by two legendary droids at the Walt-Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. Quite a few crew members were stuck at the hotel with Covid during the time of the shoot but thanks to remote access and a strong core team on set the shots came together nicely.
In post our Stuttgart studio shifted the colours to create a glowing contrast between the purple sky and yellow sheet metal, accentuating the otherworldly atmosphere.
The campaign has been shown on enormous poster sites around Europe:
