Alternate Reality
A compelling contrast with the Mercedes EQS
Directed by Niklas Nischke
Director and visual artist Niklas Nischke’s creative journey has traversed unique and unexpected terrain, much like the alternate realities he brings to life through his work. Beginning in the adrenaline-fueled world of extreme sports, Niklas initially pursued creativity as a means of documenting the exhilarating moments he shared with friends while snowboarding. Little did he know that these casual beginnings would ultimately lead him to the intersection of art, technology, and imagination.
His latest project, Mercedes EQS Alternate Reality, is a captivating and almost dystopian spec ad that creates a compelling contrast with the elegance of the Mercedes EQS. In our Q&A with Niklas, we delve into the motivations that underpinned this project, his creative process, and the challenges he encountered while scanning real-life locations around Tokyo. Furthermore, he will offer us a glimpse into his meticulous approach to CGI, where he masterfully combines digital artistry with an analog sensibility to achieve an organic and visually arresting result.
Tell us about your creative journey as a creative. What are the steps that have led you to where you are? And how different is it from where you initially set out to be?
Like many other creatives in this industry my roots are in extreme sports. I started creating videos when I was out with my friends snowboarding. At that time I was not even thinking about pursuing a creative path, it was all just about having fun and creating interesting videos or what we thought at that time were cool videos. After high school I got the chance to spend some time in Taipei and Tokyo where I continued to take photos and videos for fun. I then returned to Munich and was super lucky to meet my two mentors who were the founders of the creative studio paymanschall. That’s where I got thrown into the deep end and quickly had to learn to work within a professional creative setting. That was also when I was first introduced to the field of 3D and CGI. During the day I would mostly work there as a freelance editor and at night I usually worked on some 3D renderings or other free projects for befriended music artists. I got really hooked by this whole creative world and wanted to try everything and see where this would lead me.
My roots or impressions I made early on are still reflected in my work today. For example, I am really fascinated by the beauty or aesthetics of movement and the interplay of rhythm and movement. This correlates with my past in snowboarding, which also focusses heavily on style and aesthetics. From the very beginning I was fascinated by the dark, neon atmosphere I witnessed in Tokyo. I tried to recreate this abstract world both in my real life photos, but also in my renderings. Even though I have developed my craft over time, my creative process has not changed that much. It’s about being able to trust my instinct and follow my intuition to create something that feels unfamiliar at first.
What was motivation behind creating Mercedes EQS Alternate Reality?
At the end of 2022 I spontaneously decided to spend the month of January in Tokyo. At that time I didn’t really have a plan of what to do out there, but I felt the need to go and create something. I booked a tiny apartment, packed my laptop and a mirrorless camera and travelled to Japan. For a long time I have been inspired by the work of Valentin Petit - I was experimenting with photogrammetry and trying to develop my own style within this medium last year. I was absolutely fascinated by the way in which you could digitise pretty much anything and achieve a look that bridged the gap between the digital, CGI world and real objects and locations. Also, the imperfections that occurred in the final scans reminded me of the imperfections we love in analog film.
When I arrived in Tokyo I was immediately drawn to the amazing architecture and started “collecting” digital scans of real locations. At some point I had the idea that it would be interesting to use those scans as platforms to display a car. From this point on I developed that idea further and started building different worlds, which became the blueprint for my spec. The most amazing thing about this project is that it developed very naturally and I could just follow my ideas and try new things. This R&D approach was interesting and showed me a new way of approaching projects.
“It’s about being able to trust my instinct and follow my intuition to create something that feels unfamiliar at first”
The world you created in the video is surreal and almost dystopian. Why did you feel this would be the right setting to explore the Mercedes EQS? Tell us about your creative process.
The thought process behind this was definitely to play with contrasts. I really loved the idea of putting a pristine product with amazing design into a world that has a lot of imperfections and texture. I felt that there was a separation between the car and the world in which it existed. Kind of like the point of harmony and perfection within chaos. I think this “mismatch” adds to the overall feeling of the spec.
I tried to create a world that resembled the way I felt in Tokyo. My goal was to be able to transform the feeling of being in this mega city into a digital place and allow the viewer to experience it through the spec. This alternate reality represented a place of fascination, futurism and the fast pace of the city. It’s interesting that a lot of people see the world I have created in this spec as a dystopia. I do think there are some aspects of a dystopia, but I was more fascinated by the beauty that existed in the imperfection and darkness. This contrast between the perfection of the Mercedes EQS and the imperfection of the surreal world creates an unexpected harmony.
We are very intrigued by production, as you scanned real life locations around Tokyo. What was that like? How long did it take and what challenges did you face?
I was playing around with photogrammetry quite a while before I started this project. I tried different techniques and combinations of software and hardware. As I was very limited by my setup in Japan, only working from my 12 squares meter flat with a MacBook, I had to find a way to process the data. I quickly decided that it would be the right choice to go with the fast option of using the lidar scanner in my phone. With that I was able to “collect” digital Locations quite fast and walk through the city while finding interesting spots that would fit well in the world I was creating. It was like going location scouting, but instead of taking pictures, I was digitising different spots.
In terms of workflow, I walked around 10-20 km a day through the city trying to find the right locations for about a week. At night I would import the locations into my 3D software and continue building the different scenes. As it was a spec project I had a totally blank canvas and was able to try new things without any limitations. One of the aspects I wanted to achieve was to create a world that felt completely surreal and unseen, but also had a connection to the real world. I think that by scanning real locations you get an organic feel that has a uniquely different texture than normal 3D assets. This also helped me to achieve a more analog look within a CGI workflow.
“This contrast between the perfection of the Mercedes EQS and the imperfection of the surreal world creates an unexpected harmony”
You recently won Best VFX/Animation at Berlin Commercial. Can you share with us how you approached the project in terms of CGI? ‘
As my background is rooted in the “normal” production world and I really enjoy the process of working within the analog medium, I tried to take a similar approach with this CGI project. Everything from lighting to camera movements, exposure and grading was created as if it were a real set in the real world. It was very important to create images that didn’t feel too sterile and polished. I was looking to find a way to create the dirty grittiness that I really loved when working with film. That made the pictures feel more alive and real even though the content was completely surreal and detached from reality. This also added to the overall theme of creating contrast between perfection and imperfection.
Another aspect that shaped my workflow was that I was working with extremely limited resources when it comes to computing power. The entire project was created and rendered only using my Macbook from 2019. This meant I had to be very intentional with every shot. This limitation to only focus on key scenes and slow down the workflow has similarities to the way I was used to work with analog film.
What are you working on next?
I am very excited to be working on a new spec ad planned for the end of the year. For this project I have been collecting digital locations all over the world. I was trying to follow the idea that everybody is constructing his own reality inside their mind by experiencing different situations, places, people and cultures. This creates a fragmented world which I wanted to try to visualise in my new project.
Director: Niklas Nischke
Sound & Music Composition: Giovanni Berg