Lexus “Topographical” was produced to introduce Lexus’ new GX SUV model. The creative idea was to replace the environment with a computer generated topographical elevation map. The live action was shot in the desert mountains near Los Angeles using a helicopter.

Lexus “Topographical” was created by first tracking the live action footage using Boujou. The information generated by Boujou was then imported into 3dsmax where the point data was modeled into geometry. This geometry was texture mapped using topographical map information and rendered out in various passes consisting of elevation lines, roads, lakes, rivers, numericals, map icons and symbols, all of which were then composited together in Combustion. There was a considerable amount of masking which had to be done for the vehicle, as in some shots only the car is live action and the environment has been completely replaced with CGI.

This spot was modeled and animated with 3D Studio MAX, rendered with Scanline and VRay 1.09, and composited with After Effects and Combustion. Tracking was produced with Boujou.