Rapiditas Studio, besides being absolutely awwwesome people, are artists focused mainly on ceramic who are always pushing the boundaries of contemporary ideas about perfection and originality. They’ve got this super fun, sarcastic, and even a cheeky twist vibe to their work. They were selected by Architectural Digest España (you know… The AD) as one of the 6 artists to submit their artistic proposal for the 2024 Lexus Art Car! The winner gets to bring their proposal to life, and it’ll be unveiled and showcased at the biggest contemporary art fair in Spain, aka… ARCOmadrid25.

After months of sharing hahas, tapas, and freshhh beers with Rapiditas, we finally got the chance to collaborate on a project together. And let me tell you… Their proposal for Lexus Art Car was no joke! Rapiditas had this incredible project in mind, and they immediately thought of me and similar projects I’d worked on.

My contribution was to bring their idea and proposal to life through graphic images, making it possible to visualize how it would look in reality.

The concept that tied this proposal was «The power of kúu.» Kúu in Japan means sky, emptiness, or space. Kúu describes an empty space that can’t be measured or weighed, but it’s full of potential, where ideas and creativity can flow freely without restrictions. Rapiditas’s proposal for the Lexus is totally aligned with their art and artistic expression, creating an imaginary world between Rapiditas and Japanese cultural icons (pop and traditional). The car will be filled with new, used, and fake Japanese elements.

After discussing the conceptual proposal and how I could work my 3D magic on it, looking quick references and explaining my workflow. They sent me their advanced sketch, everything was flowwwing smooothly!

They gave me a ton of freedom and totally trusted me with the creative process. This allowed me to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into my workflow, blending my 3D work with AI, which ended up playing a huge role in the final stages of the project.

The next crucial step was to define the art direction. To clearly communicate the idea visually, I meticulously selected the best references for this project. Once defined and got the thumbs-up from Rapiditas, that mental image started to take a more concrete shape.

At this point, with the concept, proposal, sketch, and references locked in, I did some quick generations with DALL-E and Krea.ai (Artificial Intelligence) based on my mental image. This helped explore different ideas randomly within the defined framework (this experimental phase I don’t show to clients or anyone, but hey, I’m opening up to you, my friend!).

With everything well-defined, I got down to work!

Initially, I imported the car model to work on the camera, the scene and our hero. Once positioned, it was time to fine-tune the rest of the small elements (in this case, all the cool objects coming out of the car). Previously, I generated the 3D of those small buddies from a simple image of each one, working with SV3D (AI), After Effects, and Polycam to obtain the 3D of each one.

Then, I did some quick and rough textures and lighting, to get the final composition with the necessary assets to enhance the scene, shading and lighting with Artificial Intelligence.

Let’s be real, working with Artificial Intelligence has its challenges. The two big ones are having precise control over generation and consistency between different images.

Since 2021, I’ve been researching about AIs and working with them for months. The best tool right now with the greatest control is ComfyUI (25/03/24), It’s a game-changer!

With it, I defined the scene, and once Rapiditas gave their approval on this approximate image, I moved on to finalize it. I’ve fine-tuned the details with magnific.ai and final post-production in Photoshop.

Boom! We have the main image finished! Now, it was time to tackle the rest of the shots, following the same process and using the main frame as reference (these extra shots were a bonus, they weren’t essential in the brief, but, I saw it as a personal challenge).

The opening of the door represents an invitation to discover a new world, where tradition merges with avant-garde and elegance intertwines with popular culture. It’s a journey where the interior connects with the exterior, symbolizing Japan’s opening up to the world and the richness of its legacy. And the best part? It’s delivered fully to chance in the opening.

Soon you will have the powerful decision to see this proposal realized in the real world, and also, to be exhibited in ARCOmadrid25. Soo coool, right? We will see physically shine this proposal If it has more votes than any other proposal, the voting is alive… So, give us some love!

You can check the AD article written by Mariona Rubio, where each proposal is presented and summarized.

How about those furry friends, those details, those textures… They are insane, aren’t they? Let’s see some close-ups!

This project was 100% made in Granada, conceived by Rapiditas Studio and brought to life in images by me. The three of us live in Granada, we’re injecting a dose of avant-garde and innovation into the art and design scene, far from the big cities, from the periphery, creating locally and exporting globally.