CYBERCITY LOVESTORY
About the Project
CYBERCITY LOVESTORY is a transmedia project developed in collaboration with the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Animationsinstitut). It explores the boundaries between traditional filmmaking and interactive gaming, creating a narrative experience that spans both mediums.
Set in a future Mars colony, the story follows 15-year-old Elaine as she discovers Cybercity, a sprawling VR world hidden within the colony's network. The Mars storyline unfolds through a traditional film narrative, while Cybercity is experienced as an interactive VR game. Neither medium tells the complete story alone.
Final Result
CG helmets composited with live-action Mars environment
Behind-the-scenes: virtual production monitor view
The Helmet
eye-candy.xyz was responsible for creating the hero helmet prop that would be digitally replaced in the Mars environment shots. Working closely with VFX supervisor Claus Lunt, the team scanned the original physical helmet and reconstructed it as a photorealistic CG asset that perfectly matched the practical prop under every lighting condition.
Scanning & CG Reconstruction
Using our in-house scanning system, we captured the full surface geometry and material properties of the practical helmet, including the glossy visor, without any issues in the processing phase. Cross-polarized imaging delivered accurate diffuse albedo for every helmet panel and fabric component.
Film reference used for CG match verification
Wireframe check render overlaid against live-action plate
Full CG helmet reconstruction: production-ready asset
360° turntable: CG helmet with photorealistic shaders
Virtual Production
The project was shot using a virtual production LED wall setup, allowing the actors to perform against a real-time rendered Mars environment. This gave the eye-candy team precise lighting reference for the helmet replacement work, and enabled the director and VFX supervisor to see exact final composites on-set.
Behind the scenes: LED wall virtual production workflow