The McLaren of Eden

Overview

The McLaren of Eden is a personal CGI piece built in Blender. It places an orange McLaren in an overgrown ruin of classical columns and carved sandstone cliffs, under a clear blue sky. The set is five 16:9 stills and a vertical 9:16 film.

The challenge

The idea needed a believable outdoor world around the car, with ruins, rock, grass and flowers that hold up at close range. The car also had to stay the clear subject in a frame full of warm stone that sits close to its own orange.

Approach

1. I built the set as a ruin being taken back by nature: toppled classical columns, a fallen pediment with carved capitals, and sandstone cliffs cut with temple-like spires. Grass and pink clover cover the ground and run right up to the tires.
2. Light comes from a warm, high sun against a blue sky with thin streaks of cloud. The cool sky fills the shadows and separates the glossy orange paint and chrome trim from the warmer stone.
3. I framed it like a car shoot: a three-quarter hero, a ground-level angle through out-of-focus grass, and a high angle looking down on the roof and the dappled shadows around it.
4. Two clay passes, one in sand and one in white, strip out the materials so the modeling and the light can be read on their own.