LogInIraikli Kurashvili joined us to discuss his approach to creating CG car shots of a Chevrolet Caprice in a desert setting, detailing his workflow and techniques for achieving realism.
Introduction
Hey, I'm Irakli Kurashvili, based in Tbilisi, Georgia. I studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, where I first got interested in digital art. At the beginning, I worked in 2D motion graphics for about 10 years, but eventually I felt that 3D rendering was more my thing, so I started learning Cinema 4D because the software seemed very user-friendly.
When Octane was first introduced, I was very happy since it's GPU-based and works in real-time. I learned almost everything online, through a couple of paid tutorials, but mostly on YouTube. Since I also love traditional painting and cinematography, I watch that kind of content as well for inspiration. I now have around 8 years of experience in 3D rendering and environment creation.
Since our last interview, I've done a few projects for Chevrolet, Polaris, Puma, and many more, which I'm very proud of.
Getting Started
I started this project because I'm still learning new things, and I wanted to improve my composition and realism. Since I love '70s and '80s car movies, I wanted to capture that feeling as closely as possible. I used ShotDeck to search for car shots from that era and recreated a couple of them for my project. Most of the inspiration comes from the movie Duel, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Workflow
When I started, my idea was to "copy" 4-5 shots from real movies, but that never really worked for me. I ended up making tweaks that change the whole composition and lighting. In the end, I only used a rear wheel arch shot for my project.
I can't really give advice to others on how to set up a composition, since my process may not be the most efficient one. Usually, I start with a car model I want to use, then think of an environment to place it in. I block out general shapes for the environment, place the car, and tweak camera angles until I find a composition I like. I never fully "lock" the composition until the very end.
To save time and energy, I try to avoid modeling buildings and cars from scratch. Instead, I prefer working with assets, redesigning and retexturing them so I can focus more on the parts I enjoy. I got this Caprice model from Hum3D, and it was already UV-mapped.
Texturing this car model was a personal challenge. I always wanted to create an art-directable, realistic rust effect, but I was never satisfied with the results until now. Since I always use Octane Render, I set up a base car paint material with dust and minor imperfections, using roughness and bump maps. Then I added a rust PBR texture from Megascans, painting in the areas where I wanted rust to show.
Because Cinema 4D allows material stacking, I was able to add the displaced and rusted material on top of the main car paint. I had to manually adjust the rust placement on every part of the car to make it look natural. I'm happy with how it turned out, but there's still room for improvement, something I'll continue working on in future projects.
I always start by building the main shapes and placing the car model first. Once I'm more or less happy with the composition, I move on to scattering. Octane has a great scattering tool, and I stick with that. I scatter general vegetation first, grass and trees, and as I progress, I add more types of vegetation depending on the environment.
I always ask myself: where would this scene exist in real life? Is it the Alps, Alaska, a desert, jungles, or more generally, Europe, America, etc.? Once the main scattering is done and I'm happy with the composition, I add small details and foreground elements. For me, 99% of the time, the foreground is the most important, because that's where people start "reading" the image. That part should have zero CGI feel to it.
Lighting is a huge part of my work and the most interesting stage for me. I never stop experimenting, and it usually takes up about 60% of my time. My basic pipeline for daytime scenes is HDRI combined with a sun light.
If I can get away with just an HDRI, that's even better, fewer variables, fewer chances to mess up. Basically, less is more when it comes to lighting. For nighttime scenes, I use HDRI for car reflections and a maximum of 3–5 area lights. Again, less is better.
Just like in movies, I prefer to take away lights instead of adding them. I often use black planes to create more contrast. I treat a CG render as if it were coming from a real camera. The more things you add, the more fake it can look. That's why I don't use any post-processing tools, it's only color correction in DaVinci Resolve, which works great.
Conclusion
The main challenge for me is always making the scene believable, I should be able to believe it exists somewhere in real life. Deserts are especially difficult since there’s not much there visually.
I often watch dashcam footage on YouTube of people driving through different cities to make notes for myself: what makes that city feel unique? Is it the buildings, the vegetation, the asphalt, or even graffiti?
My advice would be to start slow, the process should feel fun and enjoyable. Try to observe real-life things and always ask "why?" You can copy real-life photos or movie shots, which helps you understand how big studios and professionals achieve the images we admire. And don't stop, this process is never-ending.