This project was developed as part of the LCC × ETC Audi Ring brief, which asked students to respond to Audi’s brand identity through the reinterpretation of the iconic four rings.

Rather than treating the Audi rings as a static logo or a purely graphic element, I approached the brief as an opportunity to explore how Audi’s core values—control, precision, and engineered performance—can be communicated through motion, environment, and narrative.

My background is primarily in CG, game-style trailers, and cinematic previs, so instead of following a conventional branding template, I chose to lean into what I am most familiar with: dynamic storytelling, physical systems, and camera-driven experience. This project therefore takes the form of a short cinematic concept, closer to a game or CG trailer than a traditional brand animation.

Example of ETC‘s work：https://electrictheatre.tv/work/audi-rings

Former Week：Concept Stage

PlanA- Mechanical Assembly & System Control

The initial concept for this project focused on Audi’s engineering identity, treating the Audi Ring as a result of precise mechanical coordination rather than a purely graphic symbol.

Visually, this approach was grounded in industrial and mechanical imagery—rotating components, circular assemblies, and internal systems working in synchronisation. The narrative structure moved from micro to macro: close-up views of individual parts gradually assembling into a coherent system, eventually resolving into the four rings.

This version aimed to communicate:

Precision engineering
System-level coordination
Audi Ring as an engineered outcome

While this approach aligned well with Audi’s technical reputation, I began to recognise that it sat very close to existing brand CGI references, particularly those already used in official Audi F1-related content. As a result, the concept risked feeling familiar rather than exploratory.

PlanB- Snow, Skiing, and Control Under Extreme Conditions

This prompted a shift away from mechanical interiors toward the environment in which control is tested.To make it as an animation rather than an advertisement-like video.

Snow became a key conceptual pivot.

Snowy terrain represents an extreme condition with low friction, reduced visibility, and constant instability—precisely the type of environment where Audi’s engineering philosophy, particularly around control and traction, becomes most meaningful. In parallel, skiing operates on the same physical principles: balance, momentum, surface interaction, and continuous micro-adjustments to maintain control.

In this iteration:

The Audi vehicle demonstrates engineered control within an unstable environment
The skier, moving in coordination with the vehicle, represents human-scale control
Control is framed as a shared system rather than a single object

Rather than constructing the Audi Ring mechanically, the rings emerge through movement, trajectories, and circular paths formed by motion in the snow. The logo is revealed as a natural consequence of the system in action, not as a predefined visual starting point.

Plan Decision

At an early stage of development, we explored two different directions for the Audi Ring brief. The first concept focused on internal automotive systems — energy generation, torque distribution, suspension response — gradually revealing the Audi Rings through mechanical synchronisation. The second concept moved toward a more cinematic and environmental narrative, combining snow terrain, motion, and human–machine interaction to express control under extreme conditions. Personally, I was more drawn to the second direction. It aligned more closely with my interests in cinematic CG and game-style storytelling. The idea of building tension through environment, movement, and atmosphere felt more natural to my way of working. I was particularly interested in exploring how control could be expressed through unstable conditions rather than contained mechanical space. However, after discussion as a group, we decided to move forward with the first concept. The skiing direction would have required complex character animation, environmental simulation, and a larger production scope. Given our timeframe and current resources, we realised that attempting this might reduce the overall finish and clarity of the project. Choosing the mechanical system approach was therefore a practical decision. While it was not initially my preferred direction, it offered an opportunity to focus more deeply on rhythm, structure, and controlled motion. Instead of relying on narrative and character performance, the challenge became how to communicate engineering precision through minimal, deliberate movement.

Automotive Interior Structure Study

link：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tbtMePEeh/

Storyboard

At this stage, I began translating the mechanical system concept into a structured visual sequence. The storyboard focuses on the transition from isolated mechanical components to coordinated system movement, eventually resolving into the Audi Rings.

The sequence opens with a gear assembly, presented in partial motion. Rather than immediately revealing a complete system, the camera isolates fragments — bolts, plates, circular components — to establish a sense of construction and mechanical precision. The motion is subtle at first, allowing the viewer to register the materiality and weight of the parts.
The second stage shifts attention to a larger circular housing structure. The camera begins to move more deliberately, emphasising alignment and connection. This introduces the idea that individual elements are not random, but structurally interdependent.
The third and fourth scenes focus on the piston and crankshaft system. I intentionally slowed the camera movement here. The vertical piston motion contrasts with the rotational movement of the crankshaft, visually demonstrating how linear force is converted into rotational energy. This mechanical translation becomes an important thematic bridge in the sequence. In the middle section, the motion becomes more rhythmic. The pistons operate in synchronisation, and the camera gradually pulls back. This shift from macro detail to wider framing allows the viewer to perceive the system as a whole rather than as isolated parts.
The final transition moves outward from the internal assembly to the wheel structure. The wheel hub becomes a central circular form, and through controlled camera dolly-out movement, the circular geometry becomes more pronounced. By this stage, the visual language has already established repetition, symmetry, and rotational balance.

The Audi Rings then emerge not as an imposed graphic, but as a natural continuation of the circular logic developed throughout the sequence. The fade-out and fade-in transition reinforces this transformation from mechanical reality to brand identity.

While the concept itself is mechanically driven, the storyboard process made me more aware of rhythm and pacing. The challenge was not in showing complexity, but in deciding what to omit. Each frame had to communicate motion direction, camera intention, and structural clarity without overloading detail.

Through drawing the storyboard, I realised that the strength of this direction lies in restraint. The circular forms are introduced gradually, so that by the time the Audi Rings appear, they feel structurally inevitable rather than decorative.

Previs

After finalising the storyboard, I began building the previs for Scene 1 and Scene 2. This was the first moment the project shifted from drawing and planning into actual spatial and temporal construction.

Unlike the storyboard, which exists as static frames, the previs immediately exposed problems of pacing, scale, and camera logic.

In Blender, I began blocking out the motion by animating the outer components moving inward along the X-axis. The movement is restrained and slightly eased in the graph editor to avoid abrupt mechanical snapping. I wanted the motion to feel engineered rather than dramatic.

I continued blocking out the animatic for Scene 1 through Scene 5. At this stage, the focus shifted from simple assembly motion to more complex mechanical behaviour, particularly in the piston and crankshaft system.

The main challenge during this stage was constructing the constrained motion of the piston. Unlike the earlier shots, where components mainly moved along simple translation paths, the piston system required a hierarchical relationship between several moving parts. The piston itself moves vertically, while the connecting rod follows a rotational motion driven by the crankshaft. This meant that the motion of one component was dependent on the transformation of another. Understanding and organising these dependencies quickly became cognitively demanding. At first, I struggled to manage the hierarchy of objects while keeping the motion mechanically believable. Small mistakes in the parent relationships or pivot points would immediately break the motion, making the system behave in unexpected ways. To resolve this, I simplified the structure by introducing empty objects as control points. These empties acted as intermediary references that allowed me to separate rotation control from positional constraints. Using Blender’s tracking and constraint tools, I was able to link the piston movement to the rotation of the crankshaft while maintaining the vertical sliding motion inside the cylinder.

By the end of this stage, the animatic for S1–S5 was functioning as intended, allowing me to review the overall pacing and transitions before moving further into refinement and visual development.

Lighting and Rendering Development

After completing the animatic, I moved on to the lighting and rendering stage. At this point, I began to notice that the earlier scenes (S1–S2) felt visually too simple and lacked depth.

To address this, I introduced additional gear motion into the scene. This not only enriched the visual complexity but also helped reinforce the mechanical rhythm of the sequence. At the same time, I adjusted the metal material properties, increasing the reflectivity to give the surfaces a more polished and expressive look. These changes made the scene feel less static and more visually engaging.

Dealing with Black Background and Visual Separation

As I continued working on the later scenes, I encountered a recurring issue: the use of a predominantly black background often caused the subject to visually blend into the environment.

This lack of separation made it difficult to clearly read the form of the objects, especially in areas where the model itself contained darker materials.

To solve this, I introduced volumetric fog into the scene. The fog helped create depth by subtly separating foreground and background layers. In addition, I applied rim lighting to the main subject. This edge light enhanced the silhouette of the object, making its form more readable against the dark background.

This combination significantly improved the clarity and atmosphere of the scene, while maintaining the intended dark visual tone.

Camera Movement and Cinematic Control

For the camera movement, I aimed to achieve a smooth and controlled motion that complements the mechanical aesthetic.

To do this, I used a circular rig (ring structure) to constrain the camera’s path. This allowed me to generate a consistent and fluid orbiting motion around the subject without introducing unwanted jitter or irregular movement.

After establishing the basic motion, I further refined the shot by adjusting the depth of field and focal length. These changes helped guide the viewer’s attention and added a stronger sense of cinematic depth to the render.

As a result, the final shots feel more dynamic and visually layered, rather than purely functional.

During the development of Scene 6, I attempted to incorporate a dolly zoom (Hitchcock zoom) effect to enhance the visual transition toward the final reveal.

Initially, I tried to achieve this effect manually by keyframing both the camera movement and focal length. However, no matter how I adjusted the values, the result felt visually inconsistent. The relationship between camera distance and focal length did not align correctly, causing the perspective to feel unnatural and slightly disorienting.

At this point, I realised that the dolly zoom is not simply a stylistic camera move, but a precise mathematical relationship between distance and field of view.

To solve this, I began exploring Blender’s driver system. Instead of manually keyframing both parameters, I used a driver to link the camera’s focal length directly to its position. By introducing a simple expression, I was able to maintain a consistent framing of the subject while the camera physically moved through space.

This approach allowed the dolly zoom effect to behave correctly and automatically, producing a much more stable and convincing result.