Never seen cars Moonwalk or do the worm? Then you’ve never seen Chris Labrooy‘s mind-wobbling series Cut & Shut. The project features vintage Beetles dancing and morphing in and out of candy-colored surroundings. In this “moving image homage to some classic Volkswagen icons,” the famous cars move in all sorts of delightfully silly ways.
It’s no wonder world-renowned brands like Nike and Citroën queue up for Chris’ hyper-realistic CGI-images; in each project his incredible skill and eye for detail shine through. Here, absorbed by the materiality of the objects and the fluorescent light reflecting on the cars’ paint varnish of the cars’ bodies, it’s important to remember there are no cars. There is no paint.
Personal projects are an important part of Chris’ practice – it’s where you “develop your own voice” he told a recent Adobe meet-up.
His interest in CGI came partly out of curiosity, partly from necessity. As a fresh product design graduate, Chris couldn’t afford the materials for his prototypes, and so made do with digital software. “I used the computer to bring my ideas to life, and the deeper and deeper I got into 3D-technology, I began to lose the desire to make the actual, physical thing,” he says.
And we’re happy Chris made this switch. These strutting, rhythmic Beetles are the work of a master completely in control of his medium.
