DB × DHB

About the Project

For the Deutsche Bahn Handball EM commercial, eye-candy.xyz collaborated with the Berlin VFX production company SPC to deliver photorealistic 3D assets for a high-profile national campaign. The brief called for CG elements that would seamlessly blend with live-action footage under close scrutiny.

The team was responsible for creating multiple key props, including a handball, the DB ICE train, and recognizable Berlin landmark buildings, each modeled, textured, and shaded to hero-shot quality.

Final Result

A high-speed Deutsche Bahn ICE train races past a soccer ball, set against a bright sunlit countryside backdrop, conveying energetic motion through dynamic blur and vibrant lighting.
A high-speed Deutsche Bahn ICE train speeds along tracks, its sleek white body with red accents and DB logo captured in a dynamic motion-blur shot that emphasizes speed and energy against a bright sunlit backdrop.

ICE train seamlessly integrated with live-action footage

A person in a red shirt leaps mid-air with a soccer ball in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, set against a bright sunny sky with the Berlin TV Tower and historic church in the background, creating an energetic cinematic scene.

Berlin landmark buildings integrated as CG environments

Props

eye-candy.xyz was responsible for creating multiple hero assets: the official Handball EM ball, the DB ICE train, and several famous Berlin buildings. Each asset was built to survive the closest camera scrutiny while remaining consistent with its real-world counterpart.

Handball – Cross-Polarized Scanning

The handball was scanned with our in-house cross-polarized imaging system. This technique captures pure diffuse albedo free of specular highlights, providing the exact surface microdetail needed to build a physically accurate shader. The result is a photorealistic ball that holds up in every close-up shot.

A modern Deutsche Bahn high-speed train on railway tracks – physical on-set reference used for accurate 3D reconstruction.

Physical on-set reference for CG reconstruction

Close-up of a red and white soccer ball with embossed logos against a black background, cross-polarized photoscan for diffuse albedo capture.

Cross-polarized photoscan capture – pure diffuse albedo

360° turntable – photorealistic handball with cross-polarized shader

Deutsche Bahn ICE Train

Every panel line, branding detail, and reflective surface of the ICE train was modeled from reference and matched to production specifications. The materials needed to respond convincingly under a wide variety of lighting conditions, from overcast to direct sunlight, across multiple shots.

360° turntable – Deutsche Bahn ICE train with production shaders

Buildings

With reference images gathered from many famous Berlin and German showplaces, the team created textures and delivered the shaders for each landmark. The buildings needed to read as instantly recognizable while blending seamlessly with live-action plates.

Brandenburg Gate – 360° CG turntable

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche – 360° CG turntable

Tools Used

Maya ZBrush Cross-Polarized Scanning Substance Painter Arnold Renderer

Credits

Client
Deutsche Bahn × Deutscher Handballbund
Production Company
SPC Berlin
3D Modeling & Texturing
eye-candy.xyz

More Work

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