The animation combines multiple environments including outer space, architectural interiors, coffee shop scenes, and stylized domestic spaces to create constantly shifting visual compositions around the product. Particular emphasis was placed on showcasing the turntable’s mechanical details, including the tonearm, sliders, rotating vinyl system, buttons, and material finishes through controlled camera movement, lighting direction, and timing-based animation.
From a technical perspective, the production explored non-photoreal rendering pipelines in Autodesk Maya and Arnold, with a strong focus on stylized lighting, glow response, shader control, and cinematic composition. Several rendering challenges related to aiToon, indirect lighting, and glow treatment were solved through hybrid material workflows, rim-light balancing, and AOV-based render correction techniques to preserve both graphic clarity and atmospheric depth across highly contrasting scenes.
Presented through the commercial animation, technical direction, and animation teaching practice of Roman Jahandideh.
Technical Animation Artist, Director, and Teaching Assistant, Simon Fraser University.
APOLLO LM-IX Record Player Advertisement is a stylized commercial animation project developed within IAT 343 Animation at Simon Fraser University during Summer 2025. Created as a fictional advertisement for a custom-designed turntable system, the project