A The Scope is a company that offers stress-free car launch products. Eles trabalham com Filming and photography. 100% CG. 100% Sustentável. 100% Sure.

Customers include: Automobili Pininfarina, Toyota, Lincoln, Tesla, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Cadillac, Lexus, SF Motors, LI Auto and Volkswagen.

I met Faruk at the Chaos Partner Day event in Sofia, Bulgaria and I was impressed with the work of The Scope and invited him for this interview where he asked some questions about the day-to-day work of the team at The Scope, how they work, what software they use, how they started their career, and now check out the company and ask questions. Little more about your personal interests and how you help in the production and creation of high-quality images and videos. 

Question 01

André: In your presentation on Chaos Partner Day, you have heard about The Scope and all your work focused on the automotive industry — creating ads, images and animations for new products from big companies like Mercedes, Renault and Tesla. 

I was impressed with the CGI quality. The level of realism is surreal. As I often say, I'm not talking just as someone who loves cars, but also as someone who appreciates working with 3D modeling and rendering. But there is no level of realism. 

André: So, can you tell me more about what a typical day is like working with CGI focused on launching new vehicles?

Faruk Heplevent: Whatever we do, it might be interesting to know that we use Slack as one of the main communication tools so that everyone can interact. When work is underway and scheduled, everyone is on Slack for the project. We have a morning meeting every day at 10am, usually limited to 30 minutes. Our producers use this time to exchange information, ensuring that everyone receives the necessary feedback. If you need more data or references, that's when it's time to ask. These meetings allow us to look back over the years and ensure that information is shared in a concentrated way. During the day, communication also happens via Slack, but this initial meeting unites us and defines the focus of the day's tasks. 

Question 02

André: true! Does your equipment use a remote work format or do you still have non-desktop work?

Faruk Heplevent: We are used to working non-desktop. Before Covid, we still had some team members who came from other cities and said: “Bem, the relocation is more stressful.” Since in 2016 or 2017, we introduced remote work, we learn how to configure it technically and all those things, or what was optimal. When Covid hit, we didn't even know what to do.

Leaf on a day, there are 2 or 3 people at the desk, depending on the day. Sometimes, we will be there for some people. We value being together — reviewing cores, doing reviews that are faster when we are side by side. So, we meet at the desk to do these things, like looking at an edition on the floor. When the work is more advanced — let's say, with already defined edits, when we know what to do and it's just the quest of rendering, finalizing, cleaning — in this case, the remote work works very well, and everyone can manage their own time.

But, when it comes to decision points, we feel that the strongest we will be together at the desk, analyzing original cameras, defining the first camera configuration, the illumination-base of a project, establishing the cores. Nesse case, being together is very, very effective.

André: Sim, that type of work in which you can manage your time and choose when to be together or work remotely. Esse é or future.

Faruk Heplevent: I want to say, how do I do everything, right? It is not enough to do everything with CGI, and it is not enough to do everything remotely. Certain things require different solutions. But many things can be fair as well, and it is optimal for everyone. 

Question 03

André: Do you receive 3D models from companies or does your team need to work on modeling them?

Faruk Heplevent: We currently receive the models. Or we do apply materials and, sometimes, if necessary, we do modeling of simpler parts. But lately the manufacturers have been very happy and sent us quick files.

If we manage to obtain the files in Maya format with the attribution of materials, let's do something we call “checking specifications”. We place the model in our system, we attribute the materials that we develop in our V-Ray pipeline.

Afterwards, we render in a standardized studio — a white studio with core calibrators, something like a turntable rendering. We send back to the product specialists of the assembly company, so that they can inform us if something has been done wrong, or if any necessary alterations have been made. We can analyze the details and approve the product.

It sometimes requires some steps, which is interesting. As soon as we do this, we hit the first version of the car that is ready for us in V-Ray and the creative team starts working, creating images or stills. In this way, these two work flows happen in parallel, so that we do not need to wait for the car to be finished.

We can now start being creative. At the same time we notify our clients "We do not analyze the product of our layout renders, they will still be updated."

Our pipeline is configured so that, when we have a new or updated version of the product, it is automatically referenced. Thus, artists always work with the most recent version.

André: I understood, isso é muito legal. It is interesting to know how people work. 

Question 04

André: What modeling tools do you use? I believe that he is Maya and Houdini. Is this correct? Do you also use 3ds Max? Discuss this use both in the production and in the creation of Scope City.

Faruk Heplevent: For production we use Maya, and for Scope City, or original software we use or Houdini.

André: Or use Maya is more common than 3ds Max on the market?

Faruk Heplevent: Well, there are people who also use 3ds Max. The fact that the power of animation that Maya has, or has traditionally had, was one of two reasons why people bet on it not known in the past, when 3ds Max was more focused on architecture and things as well. Leaf em dia, acho that são bem similar.

Faruk Heplevent: It is more than a question of preference.

André: For me, they seem very, very similar, because I am a 3ds Max user, more used for architecture. This is the minimum knowledge area, never use Maya when not working. 

Question 05

André: Which Chaos rendering software is used for The Scope? V-Ray, Vantage? To render Scope City, you use Chaos Vantage, right?

Faruk Heplevent: sim! So, essentially, this is the legal thing about Chaos Vantage for us, because right now we barely use V-Ray, and with the latest version of Scope City, which we called 2.0, we rebuilt it. The original version was designed only for non-V-Ray rendering, with very specific shaders that, you know, limited some use. The new version of the city will be more “render agnostic”.

Faruk Heplevent: Let's move it to the Omniverse and other environments, and eventually to the Unreal Engine. But we have to rebuild it to be able to use the real-time rendering capabilities of Chaos Vantage.

Now we are using Maya as the main tool. We use Vantage as a real-time solution, sometimes for previews, using it as a very fast LPR. And, when we finish or render, we generally do this non-classic V-Ray CPU.

Faruk Heplevent: Because Vantage has some limitations, our pipeline is configured to render on CPUs.

André: sim, wider than Chaos Vantage is a very interesting software.

Faruk Heplevent: yes, yeah.

André: Maybe this has just not started. I've never seen anything about virtual production and it's really incredible, with very legal resources.

Faruk Heplevent: Yes, it's incredible too.

André: We do not need to use just the Unreal Engine for virtual production.

Faruk Heplevent: exactly. Let's work with Chaos in a short-lived project called “Ray Tracing for the Win”, that far-flung one. We built a scenario for this and it is a legal thing: you can render offline on CPUs with normal rendered images and use exactly the same scene in virtual production. It does not require translation for the Unreal Engine. The number of polygons that Vantage and Arena (these are the Arena software for virtual production) achieves incredible lidar.

Faruk Heplevent: Now that virtual production is going to make a huge difference. We are hearing a lot of interest from the community for this, we are receiving a lot of interest from the Scope City, because you can render it offline, online, and essentially, when you have the Arena installed, it is just “jogá-la on the wall” (In reference to the LED Walls that are only LED fabrics that function as a fund, not a place of old chromakey green background) and it works. It's impressive.

André: Sim, just play on the wall. Literally.

André: I didn't know that Scope had participation in no short footage. I attended, but I did not know about The Scope's participation.

Faruk Heplevent: Sim, we built a landscape, or trem walking from dinner to street. Everything is so, you know, you know we set up the city with some kitbash assets and render those dinners.  

Question 06

André: True! You will answer part of the next question… Scope City can be used in various M&E areas. What are the people and companies most interested in this product? What should you be interested in with Scope City, but you still don't know?

Faruk Heplevent: sim, and we perceive something interesting: houve intereste da communitye de arquitetura, o que me surpreendeu, right? Because I always thought that they need exact local reconstructions, but some people tried to help us by saying: “Ah, sometimes there is something outside the window or on the side of the field that you are trying to project, but I don't want the public to be distracted thinking: Is São Paulo? Is Rio?”

Faruk Heplevent: So, it doesn't need to be realistic, curiously enough. It seems that people are saying: "Ah, how legal! Então, the city's problem is solved. I can concentrate on my main building and use it as a background."

Faruk Heplevent: então há interesse. People in the gaming sector are also looking out for us.

André: It makes sense, because you need to create huge cities, like in GTA 5, GTA 6. You need to create landscapes and settings that have some similarity with Los Angeles or Florida, and you can do this.

Faruk Heplevent: sim, the great studies do so well, right? I want to say, GTA, GTA 5 or what for. These items are their own equipment, but there have been many media studies in the games market, which are of interest.

André: sim. They can buy Scope City and focus more on the mechanics and history of the game, while the city becomes just a piece of land.

André: And it's been imagining and working, how much effort you have in the creation of Scope City. 

Question 07

André: How is your team? Do you have a large, medium or multidisciplinary team?

Faruk Heplevent: Sim, the team has worked for 4 years, like Scope City we finished quase now.

André: 4 years! Wow.

Faruk Heplevent: Our main equipment is composted for about 10 people. And, also, we have many friends and freelancers who love working.

Faruk Heplevent: That's how we operate. We are older now.

Faruk Heplevent: But, he knows like him, like Covid, many things happen. And we decided that it is legal to be a team a little less and try to be very good not what we do. And when you have a bigger team, the business says that sometimes you need to do projects with barely any money. I want to say, obviously, we work for money. But since, as you know, you have more people to support, you cannot be as selective as the projects you do. 

Question 08

André: Tell a little about your personal trajectory — your relationship with cars and CGI. How to work with something as inspiring as this? 

Faruk Heplevent: my history is in photography. I am a trained photographer. I was an assistant in the 90s. Later, I started working as a photographer with a partner at that time, which was quite unusual for car advertising. 

Faruk Heplevent: fiz isso for a good time and many trips. You know, the life of a car photographer. Acho que ainda é assim. You are going to South Africa, you are going to California, you are going to Spain. Essentially, you say segue o sol, right? To get a light for the car. 

I have been working as an assistant and photographer for a long time, but it has a complicated lifestyle. It's very difficult for the family, because you travel 6 months a year, right? But when you are at home, you are doing touch-ups or trying to get new jobs. So, as my family grew up, I decided I needed to find something else, and CGI was starting to emerge around that time, in 2006, 2007, and was becoming stronger. The car, the automotive market in Germany. Then I started to pay attention to myself. This was one of the reasons why we started the Scope, because it was very interesting and we knew the car market. 

So, photography is basically my interest. What we try to do is tell visual stories. It happens that it is with cars, because that is where we feel comfortable. This is the market we know. 

I don't drive expensive cars. I don't care about cars. I'm very much. It's kind of like, you know, fashion designers wearing T-shirts. We think a lot about cars, but we don't drive. We are not a “car guy” or a car enthusiast, collector and maker of everything related. When I get old a new car… it's time for the design. 

Faruk Heplevent: We listen very much to our clients. How we want to position the car, especially in an important situation. You have to imagine that this is the first time that you are showing that car to the world and very intelligent and talented people work for at least 3 years and half, with a lot of money invested. Right? Now, we see what we say: “We need images and films to present it to the world.” So, it's like the first portrait of the vehicle we shoot for the public. For isso, we are very focused on nisso. We focus very much on understanding what the designer was thinking, what, what, what the marketing people want to achieve… right?! And more em ter you talk about. “Ah, the reflection on the side is very clear, very dark.” “Isso communicate correctly as the design?” You know, performance and all those things? It is not assim. It is something very focused on design. 

André: sim, I can understand. I love design, but I don't have money to buy furniture from Memphis Studio in Milão for my home. 

André: And I can understand that car photographers always have no money to buy or the new launch of the Ferrari RS. 

Faruk Heplevent: Hey, exactly. Exactly. And then, how many are you going to buy? Because this is what, when we make a launch or a project, we manage to get very close to the car. It's like, you know, you're passionate about that specific car, because you think so much about it. And he thinks, "Ah, he lives here. And he lives here. And those are the people he's going to lead." So, somehow, you end up becoming emotionally attached to him. 

Faruk Heplevent: We try, therefore, to translate these feelings into images. But later, two weeks later, I need to buy another car. Right? So if you continue buying all those cars, it won't work, right? 

Question 09

André: e as a photographer. What was the car that most likely appeared? What was the most iconic car that you photographed?

Faruk Heplevent: We photographed, and the most iconic one was a Mercedes CL Coupé that we made, but it was in 2000, you know? It was a long time ago, 24 years, you know? It's very long.

Faruk Heplevent: I know that this was a legal vehicle, but also, it has always been focused on the narrative of design, lighting, localities. Because that's what it is, right? A car is a very “emotional” product. And you need to place it in a two-dimensional image.

Faruk Heplevent: You need to place all that history in that image. You know... that feeling. Here's another luxury car. What is luxury? How to translate isso in image.

Faruk Heplevent: How is luxury for a European audience compared to an Asian audience compared to an American audience? Very, very different. Right? So, find the balance and reach the point of understanding and oiling “Ok, this is the only one or enough.” so that people can reconheçam those images.

André: Sim, as people are different. There is a product for everyone. And so things are. Find or balance for each audience.

André: Faruk, it was a pleasure to talk to you.

Faruk Heplevent: Likewise.

André: Thank you for your time! 

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