The Berry and Aurora Media join forces for Jaguar TCS Racing's latest Formula E trailer, highlighting their fully electric GEN3 race car and its journey to the E-Prix finale at London's ExCeL Centre. The twist? No actual Jaguar race car was available. To overcome this, The Berry and its CGI-specialised directors, The Berry Boys, leveraged their advanced CGI skills and in-house team to create an incredibly photorealistic CGI replica. Problem solved! #nocarnoproblem

The Jaguar GEN3 electric race car was brought to life entirely through 3D software. Early morning shoots, consisting of on-the-ground filming as well as drone shots taking off from a boat on the Thames (shoutout to DroneScope), capturing London's empty streets, providing pristine, pedestrian-free settings ideal for showcasing Jaguar's Formula E race car and serving as a perfect canvas for CGI and VFX. The Berry’s CGI team then seamlessly composited the CGI race car into these live-action drone shots. To elevate the project even further, The Berry team also crafted fully CGI racing scenes set in London, just to up the ante!

To achieve uncanny realism and do justice to the Jaguar GEN3 race car, the vehicle was meticulously textured in 3D software. This process involved creating intricate material shaders for elements such as carbon fiber, polished metal, rubber, and surface imperfections. The same level of detail was applied to the Jaguar helmet. For seamless integration into the live-action footage, The Berry’s CGI lighting team paid meticulous attention to the sun's positioning, color temperature, and shadow direction to ensure perfect alignment with the live action shots.

For the full CGI London environments, The Berry undertook a similar process, meticulously referencing the live footage to recreate a fully CGI London that matched the lighting, texture, and weather conditions perfectly. This ensured seamless integration between the CGI scenes and the real footage.

A generic London street was crafted in 3D software using photo projection methods, which involved taking real-world photographs of London buildings and road textures and projecting them onto simple cubic shapes to create the buildings and environment. Additional 3D elements were then included to add detail and variation, such as trees, bus stops, road signs, road markings, buses, zebra crossings, wheelie bins, and all the other iconic features of London.

This project is another prime example of how CGI solutions can overcome logistical, creative, or financial obstacles. Without the fully CGI approach, achieving a creative like this one would have been near impossible. Additionally, using CGI is a more sustainable option, fully reduces the need for physical resources and minimises environmental impact, something which Formula E and The Berry fully support.