Personal flair

Each Maserati client can have a bespoke GranCabrio thanks to an outstanding personalisation programme. The programme includes six colour options for the canvas hood, as well as an array of exterior colours. Between both exterior and interior trim colour options, the number of possible combinations runs into the millions.

To produce a car configurator that could best reproduce this range of personalisation options, Maserati reworked its online platform in collaboration with Autodesk. The project began in February 2009 and involved three different teams (post-production, 3D graphics and programmers). The work took an intensive six months to complete. "We spent an average of three hours a day on rendering over a four-month period", reflected Alessio Morena, co-ordinator of the graphics squad.

One of the main innovations was the setting for the car: "for the first time the car was presented in a real-world context rather than a virtual studio" explained Luca Giraldi, Maserati's Internet Manager. "This means that clients can have an even clearer view of how the GranCabrio would look in a particular environment". This modification meant modifying the configurator even more. "The location obviously affects the reflections off the car", continued Morena, "so, before each rendering, we had to continually adjust the background as well as analyse the data for defining the 12 viewpoints of the car".

The programmers had to write 16,000 lines of code and the graphics team produce more than 18,000 images before the configurator was complete; most of the images were used for the animation of the hood opening and closing. The developers can be rightly proud of the exclusive content they have created.