VW came to Deutsch in 2012 to redefine the sales experience on the VW website. Deutsch created the Web 3.0 concept, which translated the car buying experience to online dating, and matched users to the car of their dreams.
Deutsch’s concept called for the use of unique imagery across all dealership platforms that would allow a consumer to see the exact model that they had configured. Deutsch partnered with Mackevision, where the brilliant tech team led by Mike Weiss came up with a way to layer individual vehicle components in real-time for display on the VW site.
If a user changed trim, or color, or anything, the corresponding series of feature images and hero images would change instantly. This was no easy task, and I was charged with supervising the art team in creating modular lighting and ensuring accurate compositing.
Above: How the real-time layer compositing worked. Without the compositing of individual pieces, some vehicles would have more unique images than stars in the sky. With the compositing system, only images requested by consumers would be created, and the website cache served up identical imagery if it already existed, saving cycles.
After the rollout, Mackevision used this similar technology in a variety of fleets, including all of FCA vehicles, as well as Mercedes-Benz USA. I was CG Supervisor for the VW and FCA Fleets.