Anamorphic 3D Content · 2025 · Deepal S05

Deepal S05,
Out of the Frame

3ds Max · V-Ray GPU · After Effects

Project overview

A car that leaves its own picture

Anamorphic 3D content for the Deepal S05 played on a curved LED screen: a 105.6-second film in which the car sits inside a bevelled picture frame and its bodywork breaks out past the edge. I built the scene in 3ds Max, rendered it with V-Ray GPU and composited it in After Effects. Front-view and back-view versions were made from the same scene.

105.6 s
Film, 2,640 frames at 25 fps
2340×1080
Unwrapped master frame
4
Colourways: blue, white, sage green, black
Watch the filmSee the build

The film

On the curved screen, with sound

The content on the curved centre screen, with sound. It ends on two white cars on stage.

Unwrap render view

Logo, four settings, countdown

The full film as the flat unwrapped render: downscaled preview of the 2340 × 1080 master. No sound.

The film opens on the Deepal mark, then runs the S05 through four settings, each in its own colour. A sequence of large numerals over a warm gradient follows, and the film closes on the Deepal mark.

Pale blue Deepal S05 on a desert mountain road, its front breaking out past the frame.
Blue, mountain road. The nose and front wheel pass the edge of the frame.
White Deepal S05 seen from the rear left on a forest road with red flowering trees.
White, forest road. Rear three-quarter view, red-flowering trees behind.
Sage green Deepal S05 facing the camera on a city street between glass buildings, snow peaks behind.
Sage green, city street. Head-on, between glass towers with mountains beyond.
Black Deepal S05 facing the camera in a white ribbed tunnel.
Black, tunnel. The dark bodywork against a bright ribbed tunnel.

Creative challenge

Make a flat screen read as a box

I drew the picture as a bevelled box and placed the car so its front breaks past the edge. That only works if the camera, the box and the car share one perspective, so the effect holds from the front, and the picture also has to sit right on a curved screen.

The same scene also had to work as a front view and as a back view, in four colours and four environments, and stay consistent across all 105.6 seconds.

Design & technical approach

From one scene to a flat master

3D scene3ds Max 2024, V-Ray GPU 7; car, environments and cameras
Camera mapCamera Map modifier with an unwrap render camera
Render passesBeauty, material ID, object matte, Z-depth
CompositingAfter Effects comps for front view, with back view and colour variation
Master2340 × 1080 unwrapped film, exported as DXV

Render passes, front view

Alongside the beauty image, I rendered passes for masks and depth: a material ID pass, an object matte for the car and a Z-depth pass. The four examples here come from different camera positions.

Beauty render: pale blue Deepal S05 head-on on a mountain road with a motion-blurred surface.
Beauty. Head-on on a mountain road.
Material ID pass: flat colours separating body paint, glass, lights, wheels, road, trees and terrain.
Material ID. A flat colour per material, so paint, glass, lights and wheels can be selected separately.
Object matte: the car in red, the surroundings in green, sky in black.
Object matte. The car isolated from its surroundings.
Z-depth pass: white sky fading through grey mountain layers to black foreground with the car in silhouette.
Z-depth. Distance from the camera, for depth-aware effects.

Anamorphic test render, curved screen

Anamorphic test. 6 seconds at 2560 × 1440, made to test anamorphic content on a curved screen: the Deepal mark, then a wireframe S05 under “DEEPAL S05 — EXTEND YOUR FREEDOM”. The same orange-arch set appears on the curved LED stage in the test footage below.

On the screens

Tested on curved LED

Phone footage from anamorphic tests on a curved screen: the film on an LED screen in a dark room, and the test content on a curved LED stage in a workshop. Sound removed.

Screen test 1. A plain-shaded version of the scene on the screen.
Screen test 2. The blue S05 in front of snow mountains.
Curved LED stage. The Deepal mark, a walking dinosaur and the “DEEPAL S05 — EXTEND YOUR FREEDOM” line inside the orange arches.

Dry run

In the hall

A dry run in a hall with seated tables, filmed on a phone: the anamorphic film plays on the curved centre LED screen, with the Deepal mark on the LED panels either side, and the stage lighting comes up over the seated tables. Sound removed.

Venue dry run, about two minutes.

Final deliverables

What was produced

Master film
105.6-second unwrapped film, 2340 × 1080, 25 fps, exported as a high-quality DXV file, Resolume's playback codec
Versions
Front-view and back-view compositions, plus a colour-variation version
Render passes
Beauty, material ID, object matte and Z-depth for the compositor
Project files
A 3ds Max unwrap set-up, a V-Ray scene exported for a 1,607-frame animation, and the After Effects project
3ds MaxV-Ray GPUAfter Effects Anamorphic contentCamera mappingRender passesCompositing

Deepal, the Deepal logo and the S05 vehicle model belong to their owners and appear here as portfolio work.