Car advertising is the ultimate test for CGI workflows since the details have to be perfect. However, Aston Martin has just demonstrated how well it can be done with a pair of stunning new ads created in Unreal Engine 5.
First up, the carmaker has shown off its new 2025 F1 challenger car, AMR25, in a video that takes us from stunning wind tunnel shots deep underground in the Aston Martin facility to the racetrack. Some are already calling it the best automotive animation in Unreal Engine, which tops our guide to the best game development software.
Epic Games' Unreal Engine is primarily known for allowing the creation of stunning graphics for AAA games, but it's also transforming advertising and filmmaking, providing a powerful platform for CGI and effects work. And the results for Aston Martin are taking people's breath away.
The pieces were made by Fuze Studios and Outrun Films, directed by Alistair Clark with additional animation by the automotive CGI and Unreal Engine effects artist Post Processed and environmental work from Snezhana Paderina
Alistair describes this as the kind of project where you "get to build whatever your mind can come up with". He adds: "With virtually total creative freedom and trust it meant we could really focus on doing something crazy". He even hid a few little Easter eggs in there. His "traditional dinosour_roar.wav sound" is buried in there twice, along with a "super old school pickup sound from a certain Doom predecessor".
Fuze Studios and Outrun Films also created a Unreal Engine car advert for the new Aston Martin Vantage Roadster. For this piece, they created a CGI driver as well as a full CCI world and CGI car finished in satin Iridecent Sapphire paint.
This piece presented massive technical challenges and required the use of complex materials due to the detailed alpine landscapes the roadsters' open roof with the driver visible, and the bright mid-day sun, which means there's no hiding anything. Check out the brake caliper shot!
If Volvo is reading, this is how you use new tech to advertise a car – not like the terrible Volvo AI advert. Tesla could also probably learn something following its Cybertruck flop.
It's been a big month for car branding and advertising news. We got our first proper glimpse of the controversial Jaguar Type 00 at Paris Fashion Week, while new Audi billboards did something radical in the EV market and actually promoted the design of the cars.
