V-Ray success story: Goodbye Kansas, making cyberpunk 2077 Trailer with V-Ray for Maya

How did V-Ray lights and materials help you achieve that grungy, high-tech look?

GBK: V-Ray ensured we could use all the detail maps, materials and hair that was created by our amazing lookdev team — without breaking render times. 

Goodbye Kansas © CD Projekt Red

Dex meets V after a job gone wrong.

How did V-Ray help you balance maximum level-of-detail with fast render times?

GBK: Our light lead, Kristian Zarins, set up some different quality presets that we almost never altered: Low, Mid and Final quality. The stability of V-Ray helped us a lot. We never really blew out on render times, even though some of the closeups ended up taking a while. Our proprietary render manager, scene setup and other pipeline tools, together with V-Ray's ease of use, helped us quickly set up and iterate shots. 

AlSurface gives realistic results even in its basic form. From that, you can only improve until you are happy with the results.

Fredrik Lofberg, Henrik Eklundh and Rebeca Cervantes, Goodbye Kansas

What do you like about using AlSurface shader with V-Ray?

GBK: AlSurface gives realistic results even in its basic form. From that, you can only improve until you are happy with the results. 

Goodbye Kansas © CD Projekt Red

Realistic skin ups the ick-factor of shots like this

Could you talk us through the steps for creating realistic skin?

GBK: It's all about the quality of the input and how it's handled in light and comp. If your lighting isn't right, it will still look wrong or unrealistic regardless of your efforts in creating the asset.

We have learned from previous occasions how we need to merge the lookdev phase with the lighting phase. To do that, we have lots of different lighting scenarios and even project-specific lighting scenarios when we are creating assets.


What's the most important thing to remember when rendering skin?

GBK: Specular is vital when handling skin. The surface detail needs to have enough fidelity to break up the specular pleasingly and realistically. We often need to tweak the speculars or surfaces based on the shot, so we usually have switches to help out lighters if the character is close or far away. Still, focal length and resolution also comes into play when handling specular and reflective details.

Goodbye Kansas © CD Projekt Red

 
V washes away the guilt — and provides Goodbye Kansas with a technically challenging shot

The Cyberpunk 2077 trailer received a rapturous response at E3 this year. How did it feel to see the crowd get such a kick from it?

GBK: We all knew this was a milestone in our careers and everyone hoped that the response would be good — but we were super nervous! The responsibility of producing a cinematic trailer for one of, if not, the most anticipated upcoming game was a bit nerve-wracking. You never know how the audience will react.

And then it all hit us like a massive wave. It felt incredible but also surreal. It took a while for it all to sink in. Overall, we are super happy about what the team achieved.


What's next?

GBK: We are always pushing to be better and to surpass what we have accomplished so far. The idea is to keep working hard to improve our pipeline and to create amazing products for great clients.

Cyberpunk 2077 is released April 16, 2020.