Cadillac Celestic - Art of You
Creative Director
Created at Framestore
This project came to Framestore through Missing Pieces, led by Mike Woods.
It ended up being a collaborative effort with Leo Burnett Agency and General Motors.
The brief was to create an immersive, interactive experience for the launch of the new electric luxury Cadillac…the Celestic.
The Challenge
Create a complex, real-time particle generated, AI driven, interactive, 2 minute experience that would live on a 20 ft LED screen….ending on a photo-real rendition of a luxury Cadillac vehicle. While…incorporating random attributes so each experience would be different, based on viewers answers which would drive variations of particle behavior, color, etc.
All within 3.5 months.
What We Did
We created 4 different particle system aesthetics for the main experience. Flocking, Texture Emissions, Waves, and Splash. Within each one there was great randomness within behaviors, colors, etc. These particle simulations were created by Shawn utilizing Unreal, Niagara and Houdini.
We designed and constructed color palettes…gradients to capture the tone of these 4 questions. All of these colors are based on the 93 possible color variations of the Cadillac.
We created an equalizer animation at the beginning of the experience as a real-time moment welcoming you into the environment created by Fabrizio within Unreal and Niagara.
He also created the transformation of an elegant particle system turning into the Cadillac. The color of the Cadillac was randomized each time based on the answers and the color palette/gradient selected.
We were asked to create a unique “Art Piece Takeaway” at the end of the experience. We designed 4 to 5 different particle aesthetics that would animate above the Celestic after the car reveal. Fabrizio took these designs and built a complex system within Unreal and Niagara to bring these art pieces to life.
Our team remodeled the Cadillac as well, for real-time performance requirements.
We also shaded, textured, animated grill, and lit the car, led by Mohamed, Veronica and Na.
Chris and I also created other particle design imagery that would live within different locations within the event, from LED screens behind the opening car launch, to printed wall surfaces within the car galleries.
The amazing dev team of Claude, Clay, Zach and Guiseppe worked to link an AI driven voice chatbot into this complex equation, solving technical issues, facilitating a web driven experience, and connecting all the external vendors work together.
Everyone on the team within production PJ, Daniel and Christine all managed this complex effort with grace and calm.
The event itself was a great experience….and went off without a hitch.
An appearance from Lenny Kravitz with the Head of Design of General Motors was a really cool moment to see.
The Art of You interactive experience was really beautiful, especially seeing it on that 20 foot screen was extremely moving.
This project was an extreme balance of creative, technical complexity, real-time constraints and a challenging schedule.
In the end it is a testament to the AMAZING TALENT and HARD WORK from the Framestore Immersive team.
Credits
Creative Director: Brian Drucker
EP: Christine Cattano
Senior Producer: PJ Stegall
Senior Producer: Daniel White
Senior Developer: Claude Dareau
Lead Developer: Zach Silliman
Lead Developer: Clay Budin
Senior Unreal Artist: Shawn Lipowski
Unreal Artist: Fabrizio Bergamo
Lighting/LookDev Lead : Veronica Delphin
Unreal Artist: Mohamed Ashraf
Asset Artist: Na Song
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