Man swims lost in an underwater parking lot looking for his car.

For this commercial we had the monumental task of creating an underwater environment where before was only a non-descript rental car parking lot. A man swims through this murky underwater environment searching for his car without luck. This was a great challenge. The only underwater element I was supplied with was the man swimming in a tank. The cars, parking lot, bubbles and caustic lighting were all created in flame using a combination of elements generated in flame and minimal CGI. Every shot involved isolating each vehicle independently and applying different localized colour correction to create a more underwater feel. Caustic lighting elements were generated in flame and mapped on to CG cars to generate the characteristic lighting. This was then applied to the previously corrected cars to create the look. After this step came the task of creating streams of photo-realistic bubbles in flame tracked perfectly to the scene. Shafts of light and small bits of floating debris were then added in the final stage during which the live action man was composited into the scene. Other elements like the surface of the water, the fog that fades into background and reflections were then added as a final touch to increase the realism.