panfilov.tv - Wyborowa Master's Machine / 3D UI

In 2017 Wyborowa - the biggest Polish company that produces vodka, launched its limited edition called "From the Master".

This specially crafted vodka made only from local wheat in old distillery in Radzicz has it's special taste that stands out in between other wheat vodkas.

Almost 100 years of tradition is kept in family by distillery master Łukasz Karmowski.

To dive deep and feel arcana of distillery craftship and make perfect vodka, McCann WorldWide Warsaw came

with an idea of making web game that will reflect whole distillation process. I was invited to create all of 3d design for this project.

Scroll down to uncover all the juice about campaign and making of the Machine.

We've made teaser that was published online few week's before main campaign. It’s goal was to make people join the challenge.

Dark animation accompanied by mysterious music gave a glimpse of the steampunk Machine i've designed for the game.

Making good distilled isn't easy in real life. Masters from Radzicz had a lot of time to make their own distillery with some handmade machinery to keep all the steps perfect.

The Game was about to examine users knowledge of the process, so we made it as close to reality as possible, consulting each step with the Master.

Additionally McCann Worldwide Warsaw designed landing page containing story, commercial videos and entry point into the game. After creating an account with their photo Players made the way thru the distillation process.

Game logic was built around 16 steps containing various temperature gauges, water pumps, coolers, mixers and water pressure points. Adjusting it all in right order, with proper values and in time suppose to provide 90+% distillate. Making it as fast as possible was also a challenge in becoming day/week winner.

It might look simple but only 89 from around 60.000 players made their way to the end in proper time providing 90%+ distillate.

Actually - i've reached maximum of 8% xD

As for the prize - 100 winners got specially created in real factory line bottle with their identity as The Master.

Whole production from concept to active web game took about 3 months.

During two months of that time i’ve designed The Machine in close co-op with modeler - Krzysztof Zwoliński, also i've made all of the lookdev, r&d, animation, simulation and compositing for final delivery.

Since i'm either steampunk or distillery expert I've started to study pictures of distillery machines looking closely for their purpose and comparing it with design. At the same time i was searching for steampunk references.

I wanted to avoid fantasy style, our project had to look more realistic and usable. Due to short schedule i've decided to make sketch layout first. Drawing elements of the Machine in 2d helped me to get quit feedback from the agency. After that we've made first 3d model and lookdev on it.

Providing Client with such combination of ref's with layout and previs resulted with enthusiastic “go ahead”.

First of all - i've planned 3d layout considering real volumes of the machinery by placing proxy of basic shapes separated in 3d environment. After that Krzysztof made eleven unique pieces with almost 1:1 scale to match real life machinery and planned layout.

Then i've added pumps and mixers so all interactive points were visible and functional. Finally i've connected it all with the pipes in which water flow was similar to real process.

Steampunk is meant to be designed with a lot of detail - screws, bolts, pipes, gauges and other strange mechanic stuff. Struggle was how to keep models detailed and keep polycount low at the same time. With fixed static camera, geometry filled 1600x800 game resolution. After few renders it was obvious how many details are visible and which one would be a distraction.

In the end - lack of detail cluter and limited mix of used materials played important role in consistent look of The Machine.

In the end i've animated mechanic elements of machines that reacted to Players steps. Also i've made simple simulations in RealFlow for C4D of water in pipes, so it could flow f.e. after activating the pump.

All of that was shaded in Octane for C4D and rendered in 4k for downscaling in game resolution.