Mini ran a series of trim package releases treated like a sneakerhead hype drop, eight different editions, each one represented in an abstract style rather than a straight product shot. We built the Red Line edition, forming the silhouette of the Cooper out of laser light, and the Paul Smith edition, built from the threads that make up the Paul Smith signature colorway. We also took the lead on motion graphics for the supers across the campaign.

The fun part was translating AI concept art from the creative team into something that actually worked in Cinema 4D, inventing the systems and effects from scratch to pull off ideas that were still abstract on paper. On the technical side, we were also melding our C4D shots with Unreal Engine renders coming from the Critical Mass team, so continuity between the two, look, motion, everything, had to hold up, and there was real exploration involved in getting assets to pass cleanly between the two pipelines.

We worked this one under Brandon Lerry at Lunchbox 3D, alongside Max Krone and Markus Gonser. Brandon's an industry leader in Unreal and automotive work, and this was our second project together after an Infinity website job, so getting to team up with him again on something this ambitious was a highlight.