Automotive Renderings Updates - January 2025

Blog Update: As another year comes to a close, I’m excited to share the highlights of AR’s incredible growth in 2024. This year saw impressive sales on FIVERR, where I had the pleasure of assisting both individual car enthusiasts and business clients with their automotive rendering needs. Business tripled over the last six months, and I’m especially grateful for the many repeat customers who trusted me with their projects—some returning multiple times.

2024 also saw AR venture into the exciting realm of AI art with the launch of the AI Art Series. Inspired by the advancements of models like MidJourney, I explored the capabilities of AI-generated art and enhanced the results using Adobe Firefly and my own artistic edits. This experimentation led to the creation of four unique vehicle designs, each exploring updates or variants within specific automotive segments or brands. These works are now available to view on Instagram.

Additionally, I continued on my Rewind Before/After Series, which I began during the pandemic. These retrospectives revisit and refine automotive renderings I created during my tenure at Edmunds.com's InsideLine. With a mix of speculative designs, intriguing “what-if” concepts, and a touch of humor, these posts require considerable effort to create and will remain a focus for early 2025.

Finally, a big thank-you to everyone following AR content across all platforms, especially on Instagram, where I’ve been spending more time connecting with the community and sharing updates. I look forward to bringing you more insights, designs, and reflections in 2025—stay tuned for updates on my series and musings on upcoming cars.

Here’s to an exciting year ahead!

AR Rewind #10 - Hyundai Genesis Convertible

Rewind: This is the tenth in a series of posts where I dive into detail of the work completed for Edmunds InsideLine engagements.

Creative Brief: Scott Oldham reached out with a request to create a convertible variation for a car would likely never have one: a Hyundai Genesis coupe. The criteria was simple, take the new coupe and turn it into a convertible utilizing elements from the Infiniti G37 convertible. With a few changes in the rear flanks of the car due to the dip in the rear side window, I was able to put together a convincing rendering as both cars had similar shapes and proportions.

Execution Highlights - Front

• Donor pieces for seats, portion of windscreen/a-frame, rearview mirrors, rear deck spoiler, and convertible clamshell all came from a Infinity G37
• Custom brushed the removal of the bottom cutout of rear side window, blending of convertible donor bits into the rear fender, and adjustments to the rear light casing

Execution Highlights - Profile

• Donor pieces for seats, portion of windscreen/a-frame, rearview mirrors, rear deck spoiler, and convertible clamshell all came from a Infinity G37
• Custom brushed the removal of the bottom cutout of rear side window, blending of convertible donor bits into the rear fender, and adjustments to the rear light casing

Final Thoughts: As mentioned in the article, it was a shame Hyundai never considered a convertible version of the coupe. It would have been a stunner and might have been a way to keep sales going for the model. Sales numbers started to slide in 2014 and by the end of 2016, the car was cancelled.

Original Blog Link: Hyundai Says No to Genesis Convertible

AR Rewind #9 - Nissan 370Z Convertible

Rewind: This is the ninth in a series of posts where I dive into detail of the work completed for Edmunds InsideLine engagements.

Creative Brief: Scott Oldham contacted me with a very exciting opportunity to render the then-just revealed Nissan 370Z as a convertible. He needed a quick turunaround and there were not yet many 370Z pictures online. Somehow he pulled some strings and procured a camo-protected prototype of the 370Z so I could get some shots of the car to use. For the convertible elements, I initially decided on a Saturn Sky but it was too easy to see that the details were Saturn. I started over with the last generation 350Z convertible as the main donor. With that element settled, significant clean up work was needed on the body and finally recolor the car blue.

Execution Highlights - Front

• Donor pieces for seats, portion of windscreen/a-frame, convertible clamshell, tunneau cover, safety rollbars, badges, and rims all came from a Nissan 350Z
• Custom brushed the removal of tape, camo, and vinyl coverings
• Changed car color to a dark blue trying to keep as much original reflections in the camo flat black paint/covering

Execution Highlights - Profile

• Donor pieces for seats, portion of windscreen/a-frame, convertible clamshell, tunneau cover, safety rollbars, badges, and rims all came from a Nissan 350Z
• Custom brushed the removal of tape, camo, and vinyl coverings
• Updated white driver's side door to match the rest of the body color and added in proper reflections
• Changed car color to a dark blue trying to keep as much original reflections in the camo flat black paint/covering

Final Thoughts: This was my hardest project to date for InsideLine. I made the publish deadline but wasn't happy with the results. I spent another two nights doing more cleanup and color correction. Scott had his team update the images the next day and I was much happier with the final product. A lot of online conversation was generated from the article so I knew we had done a good job in getting this out quickly.

Original Blog Link: First Photos of the 2010 Nissan 370Z Convertible

AR Rewind #8 - Cadillac CTS-V Wagon

Rewind: This is the eighth in a series of posts where I dive into detail of the work completed for Edmunds InsideLine engagements.

Creative Brief: Scott Oldham contacted me asking for a quick set of images for the all but confirmed Cadillac CTS-V wagon. Since the CTS-V sedan photos had just dropped he wanted to get a jump on other media sites doing any sort of renders. This would need to have a super quick turnaround. I completed the request in just a few hours over two nights.

Execution Highlights - Front

• Donor pieces for hood, front fascia, headlights, grille, badges, and rims came from a Cadillac CTS-V sedan
• Custom brushed rear bumper cover
• Changed color to a deep blue similar to an available color on the just then released CTS-V sedan

Execution Highlights - Profile

• Donor pieces for hood, front fascia, headlights, grille, badges, and rims came from a Cadillac CTS-V sedan
• Changed color to a deep blue similar to an available color on the just then released CTS-V sedan

Final Thoughts: This was a quick home-run project. InsideLine ran the article as soon as I completed it, and I believe, were first to post renderings of a CTS-V Wagon.

Original Blog Link: Cadillac Considers a Supercharged CTS Sport Wagon

AR Rewind #7 - Nissan Murano Convertible

Rewind: This is the seventh in a series of posts where I dive into detail of the work completed for Edmunds InsideLine engagements.

Creative Brief: Scott Oldham contacted me regarding a rumor that Nissan was contemplating a convertible version of the Murano. He was interested in exploring the design possibilities for a two-door variant. After some discussions on the aesthetic and conceptual elements, we agreed to draw inspiration from the hoop and boot design of the PT Cruiser Convertible. Additionally, we were uncertain about Nissan's approach to reinforcing the vehicle's structure after removing the roof so we envisioned Nissan using the Chrysler as a benchmark.

Execution Highlights - Front

• Donor convertible pieces for hoop and boot came from a PT Cruiser Convertible
• 2 doors conversion
• Custom fill in of the background and windshield area where the top was chopped

Final Thoughts: This was a really fun project that received quite a lot of laughs when posted on InsideLine's website. Ultimately, Nissan did produce the convertible in a limited series from 2012 to 2014, naming it the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet.

Original Blog Link: Future Drop Top: 2011 Nissan Murano Convertible