The scene needed to look as real as possible, from the metallic vehicles to the sunlight over the city.

Large-scale lighting was one of many challenges project lead Zak Katara tackled here. The CGI city is several kilometers long. He needed to perfectly light that space while paying attention to other details like cloud direction. The result is incredibly accurate, realistic natural light.

While Zak tackled the primary animation and set design, along with most of the post-work, he also enlisted the help of the entire team.

Senior rendering specialist Levi Krippner worked on textures. Specifically, he created realistic textures for the truck and van. To bring another layer of realism to the animation, technical specialist Shawn Letendre focused on the secondary motion and rigged the vehicle’s suspension movements. Artist Rachel Buchen helped smooth out the camera movements.

Projects like this just can’t be done without 3D rendering. It would have been next to impossible to set up a film or photoshoot to capture the same movement, angles, and lighting. Even better, these visual assets are entirely customizable and adjustable. If Phillips 66 launches a new campaign later this year, we can just as quickly update these campaign graphics to match.