Cessna – Citation Ascend

May 31, 2023

Welcome to my CGI animation project showcasing the remarkable Citation Ascend jet from Cessna.

Please scroll to the bottom to see the video.

I spent a month working with Sector 5 Digital in the US crafting a visually stunning experience that captures the grace, power, and elegance of Cessna’s latest luxury aircraft.

I used 3D Studio Max, Vray, Syntheyes, and After Effects to create the Citation Ascend “air to air” shots by re-using existing footage from Cessna.

The challenge was that Cessna had some existing footage that they liked, but they wanted to add their new aircraft into the shots.

This meant I had to create an interesting and complicated pipeline:

- - I used Syntheyes to separately track and match-move both the camera and aircraft from the existing footage
  - Then After Effects to track and remove the existing aircraft – lots or rotobrush and ‘content aware fill’. Sometimes it worked like magic, sometimes I had to go in frame-by-frame and clean things up.
  - Next, I took the Syntheyes data into 3D Studio Max to place the new aircraft model onto the newly cleaned background plate and render it.
  - Vray 6 was especially useful for matching the lighting conditions and providing clouds for reflections.
  - Finally, After Effects was used again to composite and colour-correct the shots. Cessna was keen to have their logo “pop” and their product stand out – so multiple render passes were used. In some cases, I had to do more motion tracking to add flares.

I am very happy with the results – I think the shots stand up very well.

I especially appreciated working with the team at Sector 5 Digital – whose professionalism and eye for quality was an inspiration.

Thank you for exploring my CGI animation project, and I hope you find inspiration and enjoyed the work presented here.