Many of our previous Artists of the Month focused on the beauty and precision of European vehicles. For our April 2024 Artist of the Month, we decided to go in a very different direction.
Make Haste, a design group led by Carlos Pecino Albornoz (who goes by Colorsponge) and Ash Thorpe, recently released a brilliant series of renders of a vehicle they call 'The Xterminator'.
The Xterminator project is a celebration of the 1968 Plymouth GTX, an iconic American muscle car. Colorsponge says “embarking on this design journey, my vision was to breathe new life into the GTX and endow it with a voice that is refreshingly distinctive.”
American muscle cars are all about raw power, sensation, and sound. In creating renders of The Xterminator, Colorsponge used RAY.HDRi Maps from our collection that are gritty, authentic, and minimalist. This perfectly captures the ethos of American muscle cars.
Colorsponge's main render of The Xterminator shows the vehicle on a track with a stack of tires in soft focus in the foreground, and a series of mobile homes behind a concrete barrier in the background.
It’s an authentic and informal view, a perfect fit for the accessibility of muscle cars like the GTX. The render feels like it could be a cellphone photo– as if the viewer was walking around the track and happened upon this stunning, jet-black vehicle.
Colorsponge carries this aesthetic through in their other work, with detailed views captured in informal settings. Stark reflections in their 3D renders suggest images taken at high noon, with aggressive shadows mirroring the aggressive lines of the vehicle.
The polish and grace of European sports cars are usually carried through in the way they are photographed, with beautiful, soft light and subtle shadows. It’s totally natural, then, that Colorsponge chose stark light and rough shadows to emphasize how different this vehicle is from its European counterparts!
Colorsponge also created a series of minimalist renders of the vehicle in studio settings on a white background. Even here, the grain in these images creates a sense of gritty realism that’s often lacking in studio shots.
You can take your vehicle to a beautifully lit street scene in Paris, but you can also use our collection to emphasize a different side of the motoring world, focused on raw power, authenticity, and accessibility of muscle cars.
“CGIBACKGROUNDS.COM is truly a game changer for our workflow using the amazing RAY.HDRi assets”, Colorsponge says. “Really impressed with the results they have. It’s just drag and drop!! I love them!"
No matter what you’re creating, CGI.Backgrounds is here to help. Want to use our industry-leading RAY.HDRi Maps and backplates in your own projects? Reach out to us or check out our plans and pricing page.
