THE XM
BMW COMMERCIAL
This project was designed as a short ad for BMW to be presented on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. The goal was to make a short film that immediately captures attention and presents the XM as a car that stays in control even in the middle of extreme conditions.
Creative Direction
We focused on combining stability with intensity. The camera remains mostly steady and centered on the XM. This contrast between calm movement and environmental turbulence defines the tone of the commercial. Every element in the scene, including explosions, wind, lightning, and debris test the XM’s resilience. The goal was to portray the brand as confident and bold while the environment reacts turbulently.
Visual Tone
- Setting: Desert environment with strong wind, lightning strike, and a distant explosion
- Mood: Stability within turbulent force
- Lighting: High contrast with red tones
- FX: Volumetric dust, shockwave, sandstorm, explosion, tire smoke and debris, exhaust backfire
- Color: warm tones from sand and fire balanced with the red XM and black trim
Process
The production started in Blender with layout, shot timing, and camera animation. The focus was on building a steady rhythm that allowed the environment to carry most of the movement. Each shot was planned so the XM stayed central and composed while the world around it shifted.
After the base animation and shading setup were complete, the project moved into Houdini for simulation and lighting. The workflow was built around USD which made it possible to move the scene between Blender’s Cycles, Solaris, and Karma XPU without losing structure. Matching the look across different tools was a key part of the process, especially when balancing desert lighting and the reflective red and black surfaces of the XM.
The FX work defined most of the project. Explosion, sand dune dust, tire smoke, exhaust backfire, sand shockwave and storm volumes were all built using Pyro. This was one of the most Pyro-heavy projects so far, with multiple layers interacting across wide shots. Motion blur and instancing were tuned carefully to keep debris movement natural while maintaining reasonable render times.
Instancing in Solaris became an essential part of the pipeline, especially for scattering and rendering fine dust particles efficiently. Lens flare was introduced during compositing to add a cinematic tone without breaking the grounded lighting setup.
This project became both a creative and technical study on how to balance controlled animation with chaotic FX, how to move scenes cleanly between different software, and how to keep visual consistency when each tool handles light and volume in its own way.