Waleed C. Chavez, Jeddah (2026)

27/11/2025

Posting version 2 of my CGI reel for , but with further refinements this time compared to the one I posted 2 days ago!

Wanted to lean in more on expressing the bold and rich feeling that I felt was being emanated by how TOM FORD described this fragrance on their website.

The final result is a short, punchy, and catchy 5-second reel higlighting OUD VOYAGER's beautiful bottle design and bold colors.

Made in Blender | Rendered in Cycles

25/11/2025

"A voyage through time". Featuring a spec CGI animation for TOM FORD's latest fragrance, OUD VOYAGER.

Made in Blender | Rendered in Cycles

Total Deliverables:
• 8 Photo Renders
• A 1080 x 1350 reel
• Ongoing 4K reel render (as portfolio feature).

Project Timeline Completion (Everything made from scratch):
• 7 days | 3D modeling, rendering, sound design, and color grading

20/11/2025

For the 2nd batch renders of my spec work for , I wanted to take a different direction from my previous post.

Dramatic & moody.

I wanted to keep things simple for these renders at this time, with the main goal of nailing material & lighting realism first before adding on conplexity. Here, I focused on playing with scene composition and lighting + other props in order to make 2 things stand out: the internal refractions from the bottle, and the beautiful violet color of OUD VOYAGER.

Happy to say that I feel like I nailed this one and am getting better:)

---
Made in Blender | Rendered in Cycles

19/11/2025

Originally, I had a more ambitious direction that I wanted to take this spec project in, however, after taking my time looking at the works of other amazing artists and putting my work side-by-side to see where I stand, I realized that there was a ton that I haven't nailed yet in the basics; mainly material realism.

With that in mind, I focused on nailing down material realism first. Did these in just a few hours, mainly tweaking shaders, adding in imperfections to the glass surface, but most importantly, camera and lighting tweaks to get the look that I felt look just "right".

2nd slide was a more concept-driven shot where I wanted to interpret how TOM FORD describes this fragrance as a "voyage in time".

I decided an atmospheric-dreamy look would look great, so I added in a bunch of emission plane lights and roughly 5 other lights, each having their own color and hue that match OUD VOYAGE' palette (Red Peony colors & different shades of violet). As for the "Voyage in time" part, I duplicated the main bottle and rotated them in a way that would make it look almost like a clock ticking. I then displaced the bottles at different distances to make it fade into the background and "fog" for visual depth. Then just enhanced the colors in Lightroom and adding in some additional effects there too.

1st slide art direction inspired by the amazing style of

____
OUD VOYAGE | TOM FORD | Exploration Renders

19/10/2025

What a fun little discovery this is; )

I only now noticed one of the biggest mistakes that I could possibly make, having a background in photography and cinematography...

I didn't apply any of my knowledge of photography & cinematography in 3D...and instead, I approached 3D workflow as this completely alien skill (in many cases it is!).

But the thing is, 3D overlaps in a lot of ways with photography & cinematography. Which is why in this latest spec project of mine for Tom Ford, my goal is to master the very basics of basics.

None of the crazy geonodes & simulation (for now).

The goal I set for myself here was to play with light, motion blur, depth of field, composition, and adding objects in the foreground (in front of the lens) all to create shots that look seemingly complex, when in reality, they're a lot more simple.

With Tom Ford's release of their latest fragrance, the Oud Voyager, just a few days ago I wanted to take this opportunity to experiment. After playing around with the the premade meshes in Blender (Gem) and adding a Glass BSDF node to it, animating rotations, moving things around, and most importantly, properly lighting up my subject and scene, I got this crazy looking shot which I believe matches the same bold style that Tom Ford is currently marketing this fragrance.

More shots coming soon in the coming days!

P.s. I added some extra photos & videos showing the behind the scenes for this shot!

Made in Blender | Rendered in Cycles

15/10/2025

This was a fun one!

First ever project with the new gpu, and I wanted to start of this new fun season with more time spent on volume of experimentation, rather than solely on full-production CGI Ad renders (which was my focus prior!).

Thus, in the coming days and weeks, I'll be posting more frequently; with most of them being short 3 - 5 sec animations, some stills, and then the occasional full-productions (+20sec).

For this spec project, I revisited my YSL project that I made months back and used the product asset I made there from scratch. The goal here was to create the "illusion of complexity", which is something that Jess Wiseman( ) talked about in their recent talk at the 2025 Blender Con event!

With this, I wanted to convey the "airy-light" feeling that YSL describes this foundation, so I did that by setting the scene in a dreamy-like sunrise environment, added some simple volumetrics, lighting, and also experimented with a technique that Martin Sweers shared at 2025 Blender Con too.

So much fun in this project, and I'm enjoying the fun & fast-paced nature of just figuring things out along the way and going by feel, so I'll be doing these a lot more!

Rendered in Cycles | Made in Blender | RTX 5060

02/10/2025

Hey, everyone!

Recently upgraded my GPU to help with my CGI works, and I'm currently selling my used one.

> GPU: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 1660 Super

> Price: Php 5,316 (60% off original retail price) | Negotiable
---
> GPU Age: ~2 Years Old

> Usage Overview: Heavily used for 3D Rendering & Video Editing work.

> Thermals: Been careful about temperatures, so this card has never reached over 73°C

> Other Details: Likely in need of deep cleaning, since I've never disassembled this GPU to do a deep clean of it or replace thermal paste.

---
Reason for why I'm selling this at an absurdly low price:

I wanted to give this card a second chance, since it still has so much life in it.

PC parts are expensive, so I wanted to give this to someone who genuinely needs it.

The only reason why it's not free is because I'll be personally hand delivering this to you (meetup at a mall), and I'd have to take some time off from work. So, the price is to make up for transportation costs and time costs.

---
If you know anyone who'd be interested in this card or you think they'd find this interesting, feel free to share this with them.

25/09/2025

Just got done doing the final touches for this animation I made in Blender + Davinci Resolve!

New non-commercial work for 's fragrance, OUD Satin Mood.

Made in | Rendered in

19/09/2025

Final behind-the-scenes renders from each of the 6 scenes of this non-commercial animation that I'm currently working on for and their fragrance, OUD Satin Mood!

This project was a massive breakthrough for me since I took a completely different approach to my CGI workflow after doing some reflection on how I could further improve, especially given my hardware limitations of doing all this on a GTX 1660 Super graphics card.

Spent days researching and analyzing big studios and really popular independent artists in the luxury CGI space to work on my own visual taste, as well as for creative inspiration when it comes to lighting, effects, scene setup, and more.

Particularly spent a lot of time analyzing the beautiful works of , , and in order to learn how the best-of-the-best in the industry approach their own works, so that I can translate all this into my own workflow to see how I could improve mine. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the amazing and cool work you've been putting out!🤍

~23s animated hero ad coming within the next few days, for this project!

17/09/2025

Non-commercial exploration of Maison Francis Kurkdjian's OUD Satin Mood.

Featuring some preview renders for Scene 1 of this animation that I'm working on.🎥
---
Made in | Rendered in Cycles

13/09/2025

I call this piece: Floral Abyss | MFK OUD Satin Mood Revisited ; )🌷

I remember getting the chance to smell this fragrance a few months back, and it easily has become of my most favorite fragrances of all time.

Upon spraying, you get 2 notes that instantly stand out; you've got the Turkish Rose & Oud notes.

Though, because the floral notes stood out so much to me and how they blended so well with the oud notes, I wanted to convey that feeling I first got upon first smelling this fragrance, thus the floral-heavy focus of the renders.🌷

Played around with scene setups and compositions, before then deciding now is probably a good time to just share these 2 renders as WIP & exploration renders for now before then continuing on experimenting with other things, then ultimately, making the story-focused animation ad for this spec project!

p.s. Spec work

pps. I attached a viewport photos that show the behind the scenes of this project, for those interested;)

----
Made in Blender | Rendered in Cycles

12/09/2025

Excitedly decided to revisit this project because I had a quick idea in mind 2 days ago to experiment with floral stuff.

Quickly opened up my old MFK save file, copy pasted the model I made there from scratch, then proceeded to experiment with geometry nodes.

Big thanks to for the super amazing tutorial on YouTube for the procedural rose node breakdown! Had so much fun learning and playing around to match the pinkish rose petals, used specifically in one of the fragrance notes for MFK's OUD Satin Mood, the Turkish rose.🌹

Next batch of floral experimentations using this same model coming up in the next few posts!🌹

p.s. this post is a spec project, not an official collab with the mentioned brand.

Waleed C. Chavez