Animation unboxed: how xoio brought its first narrative film to life with Vantage, V-Ray, and Corona
Like many 3D artists, Peter was initially tempted to showcase dramatic landscapes and bold scenes, but he soon figured the film was lacking something. “I realized, well, this is good and fine, but there’s no narrative,” he recalled. That insight forced a complete reset. Peter stepped back, got the help of his friend, cinematographer Olaf Aue, who helped him decide on a story, build a storyboard, and assemble a very rough cut in DaVinci Resolve to help guide his next steps. The pair also decided to introduce a character to the story who could help convey emotion—a departure from the architectural animations Peter was used to, which rarely featured people.
That rough cut became a working framework, and Peter used it to fill in the blanks bit by bit with test renders created in Vantage. The tool’s real-time speed let him test wide shots, closeups, different lighting setups, and modes without having to second-guess decisions or waiting hours for previews. “That was when Vantage was extremely valuable for us,” he explained. “Without that, basically, I don’t think it would have been possible to pull that through.”
Once Peter decided on a camera angle, he could tweak it as needed, moving props, refining depth, and optimizing lighting. The speed at which Vantage could produce test renders, and the high quality of those renders, helped speed up these technical decisions, which meant the whole process was more creative and spontaneous overall. As Peter put it, “I could hit the button, make myself a coffee, and I had a sequence of four or five seconds with the quality and the look and feel, and depth of field [that was important].”
By combining a solid narrative structure with this very explorative workflow, xoio discovered a whole approach to animation that emphasizes story, speed, and experimentation.
Results: From real-time exploration to cinematic delivery (and a turning point for xoio)
After building out the film and learning more about sequencing and storytelling—thanks in part to support from Olaf—Peter was ready to move into the final render. Most of the animation was rendered in V-Ray, Peter’s tool of choice, but Corona was also used for a few early shots. These sequences were relatively isolated and easy to transfer, making them a perfect fit for Corona’s fast, high-quality output. Sending scenes between Vantage, V-Ray, and Corona was, in Peter’s words, “99% hassle-free and reliable,” and the entire project was rendered on just two workstations over the course of one month.
With the animation complete, Peter presented it to a group of industry peers at a Chaos Unboxed event held in Berlin to overwhelming praise.
Once rendering finished, Peter could compare the final product with the test shots that Vantage had rendered in the time taken to make a coffee. “I realized that for a lot of the shots, if I would have tweaked them more in Vantage, I would have gotten 95 or 96% of the final [V-Ray rendered] result.” While it was a realization that came too late for this first experiment with Vantage, Peter says he would now be more comfortable relying on the quality of Vantage renders for future animation projects, particularly those with tighter deadlines.
In fact, soon after he tested this by rendering another short animation completely in Vantage:
Xoio’s Unboxed animation wasn’t just a chance to explore a new tool. It also marked a creative turning point. Using the ArchViz Collection, xoio realized even their small, agile team was capable of delivering cinematic storytelling. Vantage’s real-time workflow didn’t just speed up production; it opened the door to experimentation, unlocked new storytelling techniques, and pointed toward a future where animation could become a bigger part of xoio’s business and services.
Discover more of xoio’s projects on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Behance.
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