Automotive Look Dev Series is a collection of studies I have created over the past few years exploring the relationship between automotive materials, lighting, reflections, and motion. The series includes fully developed animation pieces, shorter rendering tests created to study specific lighting or material behaviors, and still images focused on surface quality and visual presentation.

 

Among these works, Endless Engines (the first blue car animation) explores how two vehicles with different forms and materials respond to outdoor environments under both shared and varied lighting conditions. Although the piece also involves vehicle and camera animation, its core focus is on how body shape, paint finish, reflections, motion blur, and cinematic lighting work together in automotive rendering.

 

The second animation is an excerpt from my thesis film, Forever. This shot explores the relationship between unorthodox lighting, both on the character and the vehicle, and its role in supporting narrative, mood, and emotional expression. For a more detailed breakdown of this shot and to view the full film, please visit the Thesis Film: Forever section.

 

The third piece, Tunnel Racing (the white car animation), focuses on the reflective behavior of a high-gloss vehicle surface moving at high speed through a tunnel environment. The ceiling of the tunnel is filled with bright linear light sources, allowing the car’s body to capture and stretch those highlights into sharp, dynamic reflection patterns as it moves.

 

The fourth animation studies the paint and reflection quality of a smooth-surfaced car under a well-lit indoor environment, especially under a common overhead garage-style lighting setup. While developing this piece, I also used it as an opportunity to practice camera movement and presentation in a controlled studio-like setting.

 

The fifth animation study explores the reflective relationship between a car’s surface material and its surrounding environment in a dark indoor setting. It also examines the visual effect of illuminated taillights in an otherwise nearly black space. To make the presentation more engaging, I added graphic overlay elements during editing, though the piece itself is not intended as an infographic motion design project.

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The still renders shown below continue this same line of research, focusing on how different automotive materials respond to different lighting conditions, and how subtle changes in light can reshape the perception of form, surface, and mood.