See five great VFX breakdowns from the 2025 V-Ray showreel
Chaos has released its 2025 V-Ray VFX and Animation Showreel, its round-up of the best new work created with the production renderer for DCC apps including Maya, Houdini and 3ds Max.
As we’ve occasionally done in the past, rather than just picking out personal highlights from the reel, we thought it would be fun to go a step further, and show how the projects were created.
Below, we’ve compiled a run-down of five key projects from the new V-Ray showreel, complete with VFX breakdown videos from the studios that created them.
The showreel also features great work from studios like BUCK, Realtime, Scanline VFX and Unit Image – you can find a full list here – but we’ve focused here on projects with making-ofs online.
Movie
Title: Elevation
Studio: Digital Domain
Post-apocalyptic thriller Elevation sees survivors confined to isolated mountain enclaves after the terrifying insect-like Reapers emerge from underground and decimate humanity.
For the creature design, Digital Domain referenced real-world predators like tigers and Komodo dragons, also creating detailed CG environments, and FX elements like dust and explosions.
Read more about Digital Domain’s work on Elevation
Broadcast Series
Title: Agatha All Along
Studio: Digital Domain
Digital Domain worked on a number of sequences for Agatha All Along, Disney+ and Marvel Televisions’s WandaVision spin-off, but one of the most challenging was Agatha’s death.
As her body withers and decays, vegetation engulfs it, fungi gradually giving way to roses.
Although the team considered tackling the sequence in 2D, most of the work was CG, giving precise control over every blade of grass, while FX artists added details like falling dirt.
Read more about Digital Domain’s work on Agatha All Along
Game Cinematic
Title: Helldivers 2 intro cinematic
Studio: Goodbye Kansas Studios
For the tongue-in cheek intro to third-person shooter Helldivers 2, Goodbye Kansas worked with developer Arrowhead Game Studios to design a cinematic that nodded to American military recruitment ads without tipping over into excessive exaggeration.
Unreal Engine was used for pre-production, to establish layouts from storyboards and bring scenes to life during the mocap shoot, with V-Ray used for asset development and final output.
Read more about Goodbye Kansas Studios’ work on the Helldivers 2 cinematic
Animation
Title: Les As de la Jungle (The Jungle Bunch)
Studio: TAT productions
TAT productions’ flagship property, Les As de la Jungle (The Jungle Bunch) has been a hit since 2011, spawning an International Emmy Award-winning series and two full-length features.
The video above is an overview of the studio’s pipeline, but you can find detailed breakdowns on TAT’s YouTube channel, including one on lighting and rendering in 3ds Max and V-Ray.
Read more about TAT’s animated series and movies
Short Film
Title: Void of Substance
Studio: Korb
For in-house CG short Void of Substance, motion design studio Korb created an enigmatic and meticulously rendered meditation on the power of AI – without using AI-generated imagery.
To create the AI ‘brain’, Korb used 3ds Max add-on tyFlow for VDB simulation, and V-Ray for rendering. The video above shows the full short, but you can find a brief making-of here.
Read more about Korb’s work on Void of Substance on Stash
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.