André Rieu's studio got in touch with Renderhouse in the spring of 2007. They asked Renderhouse if they could help them with the creation of animations showing their new stage and set décor in the setting of the world's biggest stadiums. Initially, it looked like only one venue animation would have to be made - the one for the Toronto show scheduled for December 14, 2007, for which ticket sales were to begin in May, 2007. The Toronto concert was to be the first in a series of concerts planned over the next months. Since the décor didn't exist at the time the first commercials were to aired, there was definitely a need for virtual images to show Rieu fans what to expect.

André Rieu was so pleased with the results of this first animation that he immediately ordered an animation for every concert venue planned in the 2007-2008 World Stadium Tour, showing the exact venue location, including décor.
 

The scenes start with an aerial map for layout and positioning of the different elements in the near and far environment of the Stadium. As soon as layout and scale have been set, Renderhouse determined the best possible camera paths based on usability and how recognizable each venue would be. They then start building the stadium. For some stadiums, no plans were available and the Internet had to be searched for good reference pictures. The stadiums were built at semi-detailed level. It was important to make them recognizable, with accurate night lighting setups - again, based on picture references. The corridor between the outside and the inside is mostly imaginary because the camera needs to move smoothly from the exterior to the interior.

The décor model itself, a recreation of the 'Schonnbrunn' castle in Vienna, evolved through time, with the development of the real décor. It now includes the amazing 125m large and 35m high décor façade, two ice rinks, an orchestra, people dancing in the dance hall, people waving on the balconies, two horse-drawn carriages, light poles, chandeliers and moving show lights.

The modeling of an entire 3D scene takes about four weeks for one person, equally divided between environment, stadium, décor integration and audience placement. A fourth week is needed for camera animation, light setup and render optimization. The entire scenes contain up to 200 lights, mostly with shadows, many more luminance objects simulating distant lights and lit windows, up to 2,000,000 polygons and up to 800MB of textures. The stability and logical workflow found in CINEMA 4D is of great help with such complex scenes. Whenever something is not working as expected, the problem is quite easily found and solved. After all, these animations had to be created by a single person!

                   


So far, Renderhouse has delivered animations for Toronto, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Seoul and New York.

                         

In addition to animations, Renderhouse created hires press images of all venues, panoramic background images for press conferences, test files for décor design decisions, and more.