Sonnie’s Edge

Blur’s first short was the first point of contact viewers had with Love, Death & Robots. A cyberpunk’s delight, Sonnie’s Edge (season one, episode one) represents a bleak, futuristic version of London teeming with violence and grime. Our heroine is a fighter in the “beastie” world, where people telepathically tap into the body of a vicious creature to do battle with another.

Director Dave Wilson wanted to create a rich, neon-colored culture that would balance the tone of the short and the rundown structures it takes place in. Here, cinematic digital humans would mix with their surroundings in a highly stylized, photorealistic way. To achieve this, the artists applied V-Ray to nearly every part of the creative process, from look dev and compositing to the final animated frames.

“V-Ray helped us add depth and atmosphere into sequences at speeds we'd only dreamt of before; not to mention, gave us full control over all the unique lighting in our scenes,” said Chris Bedrosian, CG Supervisor on Sonnie’s Edge. “During the animation phase, V-Ray's progressive renderer provided rapid feedback that our animators then used to see how the animation would work within the scene’s anticipated lighting. It was really helpful.”

Progressive rendering and careful collaboration between the lighting and animation departments proved important, as it allowed the team to visualize performances long before wholesale rendering began, with a level of fidelity that went far beyond the traditional playblast. These quick and detailed progressive renders also afforded the lighting team an opportunity to anticipate and respond to character lighting challenges well before they were under the pressure of looming deadlines, ensuring that much of the show was 'lit' and rendered before the full lighting/compositing teams went to work.