Rotor Studios switches its automotive visualization pipeline to UE5
When automakers need to market and sell new models, they often turn to an automotive visualization partner—specialists who bring vehicles to life before they ever hit the road.
These creative agencies are experts in developing high-quality customizable marketing content specifically for the automotive industry, from cinematic launch films and photorealistic renders to VR experiences and interactive configurators.
One of the leaders in this space is Rotor Studios. Working with brands including Toyota, Lexus, Ford, and Volkswagen over the past two decades, Rotor has had a front-row seat to how the industry has evolved.
More than a mere observer, the company has been an active participant in this transformation—transitioning from live-action shoots to computer-generated imagery, and ultimately embracing real-time technology.
Now, Rotor Studios has taken the next step by moving its production pipeline to Unreal Engine.
We caught up with Luke Sandford, Chief Creative Technologist at Rotor Studios to find out why the team has gone all-in on UE, how systems like Substrate have changed the game—and what OEMs gain from hiring a real-time-first automotive visualization partner.
These creative agencies are experts in developing high-quality customizable marketing content specifically for the automotive industry, from cinematic launch films and photorealistic renders to VR experiences and interactive configurators.
One of the leaders in this space is Rotor Studios. Working with brands including Toyota, Lexus, Ford, and Volkswagen over the past two decades, Rotor has had a front-row seat to how the industry has evolved.
More than a mere observer, the company has been an active participant in this transformation—transitioning from live-action shoots to computer-generated imagery, and ultimately embracing real-time technology.
Now, Rotor Studios has taken the next step by moving its production pipeline to Unreal Engine.
We caught up with Luke Sandford, Chief Creative Technologist at Rotor Studios to find out why the team has gone all-in on UE, how systems like Substrate have changed the game—and what OEMs gain from hiring a real-time-first automotive visualization partner.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
Hi Luke! Could you start by giving us an insight into how you’re using Unreal Engine at your company?
Luke Sandford, Chief Creative Technologist at Rotor Studios: Rotor has always mixed creativity with emerging technology. Founded in 1998 as a full-service production company, we’ve grown into an award-winning CG studio and software development team.
We moved from purely live action to CG in the early 2000s and then into real-time CG with Unreal Engine about ten years ago as we developed interactive showroom configurators that have been rolled out across all Toyota and Lexus dealerships in Australia.
As a result of Unreal Engine's continuing improvements in visual fidelity and performance, as well as growing client requirements for more configurable content, we’re in the process of extending our CG production pipeline to utilize Unreal Engine as a renderer.
Unreal Engine underpins our work—from automotive content and motion to VR/AR and configurators. We use its Path Tracer for high-end stills, Sequencer and Control Rig for motion, plus Python, C++, and Blueprints for interactivity.
We’ve also built a Substrate-based material library for paints, plastics, and fabrics, ensuring consistent look development across mediums. Our scientific capture process reproduces automotive materials with extreme physical accuracy.
Unreal has become absolutely central to our production CG pipeline.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
What is the value of UE for your company?
Sandford: Quality, flexibility, and speed. Unreal Engine lets us get to photoreal for our clients faster and more cost-effectively than our previous CG pipeline and works for all our marketing content and experiences. We light, shade, and animate a car in UE and can rapidly push it out to drive web configurators, VR experiences, and personalizable marketing content from a common source.
A unified UE pipeline also means we only prepare or update a vehicle’s digital twin once and then use it across all of our outputs—real-time, motion, and static.
Unreal offers an ideal balance between production flexibility, quality of output, and speed to create.
How does Unreal Engine help you win work?
Sandford: We’re proud that our major clients have been with us for over two decades. Our first engagement is usually a consultative workshop. We listen to their requirements, gather an understanding of the state of the 3D assets (if they exist), and demonstrate how real-time workflows can solve their problems.
Unreal Engine is a powerful part of that pitch: seeing a live, photorealistic configurable car in real time helps get a client’s attention. Our experience with complex projects and our track record plays a major part, but a UE prototype makes it a very tangible experience for them, which really helps.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
How is your use of UE beneficial for your customers?
Sandford: For automotive OEMs, Unreal Engine shortens approval cycles, and ensures a consistent, photoreal look across every medium.
Our workflows prioritize asset reuse and modular content: once a vehicle is built correctly in UE, it can power configurators, marketing imagery, and immersive experiences without replicated effort—and up to 100 times faster than the existing pipeline! This “build once, use everywhere” philosophy boosts return on investment and allows us to deliver more content for the same budget.
We’ve applied this approach to create Interactive Showroom XR (using Google’s ISXR) experiences for brands such as Mercedes, Nissan, and Ford, where Unreal Engine assets are deployed into augmented reality (AR) contexts.
In these projects, customers can use their phone to position a photoreal vehicle in the real world, swap colors or trims on the fly, and view technical details in situ.
Because the AR execution uses the same UE master assets as our configurators, it keeps visuals consistent across web, dealership, and marketing channels. It also reduces decision fatigue—shoppers see their dream car at true scale and can explore options interactively, which increases confidence in the purchase and elevates the overall experience.
Equally important is the real-time interactive nature of these experiences. Complex rules such as which accessories are compatible with which models are handled seamlessly in the background, making the process intuitive for customers. This ease of use has become a vital part of the sales process, helping dealers and OEMs sell more effectively by giving buyers an experience that feels engaging, transparent, and modern.
In short, Unreal Engine lets us build high-fidelity vehicle assets once, deploy them across multiple channels, and deliver rich, interactive experiences faster and more cost-effectively than ever before.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
Can you give us a real example of how Unreal Engine has been integral to your work?
Sandford: At Unreal Fest Orlando 2025, we presented our latest R&D project, Elevating Automotive Content: Integrating UE with Gaussian Splats and AI.
We showcased how we built a hybrid pipeline combining Unreal with Gaussian splats and generative AI to produce high-quality CG content for two global car brands under tight budget constraints and within a short timeframe.
By using UE’s Procedural Content Generation (PCG) plus splats, we rapidly generated photoreal 3D environments, and AI tools filled in background details and alternative shots. The result was a campaign with high production value delivered from limited locations.
Our own Substrate-based materials ensured consistent car paints across video and stills. Using Substrate has allowed us to push the accuracy and detail of those materials, getting closer to ground truth. It encapsulates why we love UE: we can push the boundaries of photorealistic rendering and still iterate at pace. The additional accuracy ensures satisfied clients, and rapid iteration means we get there faster.
Do you think UE gives you a competitive advantage and if so how?
Sandford: Absolutely. We can offer large-scale configurators, real-time AR/VR experiences, and broadcast-quality commercials from the same asset base. For pre-rendering, we’re up to 100 times faster than previous workflows. That change in output speed alone affords a huge advantage. It translates into quick reactions to feedback, shorter QA iteration cycles, and many more rounds of creative iteration. Those additional iterations in the creative process leads to a higher-quality result.
Because we build spec-correct master assets once and reuse them across every channel, we can deliver consistent visuals more efficiently than traditional CG pipelines.
Unreal Engine also collapses production timelines, and allows faster iteration (i.e. more iterations for more quality), real-time approvals, and truly interactive experiences that competitors still tied to offline CG workflows struggle to replicate.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
What is your personal favourite UE tool or feature and why?
Sandford: The single most impactful feature for us at the moment is the Python API. The ability to extend the engine and build new integrations and functionality, as well as reuse existing infrastructure/tooling, has unlocked a huge amount of control and flexibility.
Recent updates around the Path Tracer and rendering are great and have driven our decision to move our pipeline to UE, so that has to be a winner.
I’d also give an honourable mention to the new Substrate shading system. Substrate gives car paint the respect it deserves— - layering basecoat, metallic flake, and clear coat is now intuitive and physically accurate.
What are your top three tips for autoviz folks wanting to create their own projects?
Sandford: Start with references: For both product and creative. Aiming for a look that you love will make all the difference.
Respect your data: Clean CAD data and sensible asset hierarchies will pay off later. Use Nanite and LODs wisely; don’t throw 100 million polygons at every prop.
Master materials: Master materials: Build a library of Substrate-based materials. Use consistent color management and measure real-world reference samples. And to loop back to the first point, photorealism starts with correct references.
Courtesy of Rotor Studios
What is your vision for the future?
Sandford: We believe that in the future, everything will be on demand. That includes stills, videos, interactive experiences—the whole lot. Unreal Engine gives us the unique ability to create just in time, and unlock a future of modular, creative storytelling.
We see real-time workflows becoming the norm for automotive marketing. Unifying motion, stills, configurators, and immersive experiences under one asset set has massive advantages for everyone. We’re investing heavily in procedural tools, AI-assisted content creation, and cloud rendering.
We’re also beginning to explore Unreal Engine’s potential for human–machine interface (HMI) development. It’s an exciting area where real-time tools can help shape the in-car experience itself, not just the marketing around it.
We’re eager to see what new capabilities Epic introduces in this space, and how they can support both OEMs and end users in creating intuitive, visually rich interfaces.
As UE continues to evolve, we plan to stay at the forefront, creating experiences that delight audiences and help clients sell more cars, and to keep exploring the possibilities created by this wonderful toolkit.
Thanks again for the opportunity. We’re excited to keep collaborating and to help more UE users get the most out of the engine.