San Miquel

Quench your virtual thirst with our sumptuously refreshing work for the wonderful folks at TMSW for San Miquel. Rendering Beer has a lot of nuances to it, and we’re pretty chuffed with the result, plus we got the swanky glass as a keepsake - we do love a project memento (this does explain some of the weird / cool / downright freaky stuff we have on our shelves here).

Rendering any liquids is always a mission, unlike nice, sensible opaque surfaces (that’s not see through to you and me), the colour and definition of the image are generated by the environment that shines through it. What this means is that to get something purdy, you need to spend a long time building the environment and lighting behind (and surrounding the glass), as well as paying meticulous close attention to the parameters of the liquid itself. Combine this with foam (don’t even get me started on that son of a hellfiend) and you have quite a technical lighting challenge. But it’s worth it when you’re rewarded with some gorgeous visuals as you see the fluid move slowly across the environment, little bubbles sparkling and all.

Good old Softimage was used as the primary 3D package. ICE provided it's usual yummyness, providing the outer drops and inner particles. Arnold was it's ever resilient self spitting out the final renders before everything was suitbale pounded in Nuke. these ingreadients were then baked at 210 degrees for 3 hours in After Effects.