The first project in my ongoing "Universe" series, Pagani Universe was conceptualized in late 2016 as a way for me to layer a lifelong love of science fiction with my work in car photography. Having grown up deeply inspired by the futurism of Syd Mead et al, I wanted to try projecting some of that feeling onto cars. After presenting the idea to Pagani Automobili during the production of reveal imagery for their Huayra Roadster, the images below were produced during 2017 & early 2018 in collaboration with multiple CG artists including Dmitriy Ten, Eric Martin, and the team from Gloss.
The first part of the project involved a CG car being inserted into matte painted (but practically shot) backplates including Titan I, Valley of the Spires, Islands, and End of Argo as seen below.
I made some initial mockups using my own plates library, with loose sketches of my proposed additions, then shot new plates and HDRI spheres for the final imagery.
The final images in the series were created entirely in CG, with the car and environments handled in separate software titles, then combined in Photoshop to lend the same attributes as other work from the series.
