Superman & Lois: Pushing limits with AI relighting

Boxel Studio used Beeble's SwitchLight to deliver faster, high-quality VFX.

Since its establishment in 2009, Boxel Studio has worked on major productions from the likes of Sony, Lionsgate, and Disney. When Founder Andres Reyes Botello and Creative Director for AI & Innovation Freddy Chavez Olmos started work on HBO Max's Superman & Lois, they needed lighting software that would speed up delivery time while retaining high quality, as creating VFX for a television show requires meticulous planning and fast turnarounds.

Behind the Scenes

Can you explain a little bit about your work on Superman & Lois?

Andres: We were across a lot of different shots. Some involved full CG environments, creature animation, and digital double creation, and others had more subtle effects added, like destruction, scenery augmentation, and compositing. Luckily, we worked very closely with the on-set VFX supervisor, so we had good reference material and on-set data, including LiDAR scans for accurate geometry and HDRIs for lighting reference.

Freddy: When I first saw SwitchLight in action, I knew there was a use for it. A colleague, Bruna Berford, ran the first test on real Superman & Lois footage. When she showed me the result — normal maps, depth, and other passes extracted from a live-action plate — I was floored. Our comp supervisor realized Beeble was essentially performing footage virtualization, generating different AOV passes straight from the live-action plate. And she did all of this within Nuke without CG and digi-doubles, so we knew it would completely shake up our workflow.

We showed the results to the VFX Producer, Matt Gore, on Superman & Lois, and he was very impressed. The team is always looking for ways to boost production value while staying mindful of financial constraints, and Beeble could do just that.

How did you discover Beeble, and what made you decide to try it?

Freddy: I'm always on the lookout for technologies that can reshape the way we work — things that aren't just incremental improvements, but real paradigm shifts. I first learned about Beeble through reading a research paper and was immediately intrigued by what it could mean for VFX professionals. I reached out to Hoon Kim, Beeble's CEO, met him at SIGGRAPH that year, and our working relationship began. Since then, we've been integrating Beeble into several of our projects. Initially, we used it for smaller parts like green screen comps, then we saw how fast and flexible relighting made a difference.

Andres: Once we understood its potential, we implemented it into our main project pipeline. It was one of the first machine learning-assisted tools we ever used in a real production setting. Those early tests on green screens worked great, and since then, it's become our go-to solution for a much broader range of compositing work.

Beeble in Production

What kind of work did you do with Beeble?

The software enabled us to create truly intricate, interactive lighting, no matter how small the detail. For example, we relit the edges of Superman's eyes for his laser vision, simulated subsurface glows, and made characters react to nearby explosions. In a traditional pipeline, FX like this would be more difficult to create and would involve the appropriate lighting on-set. But using Beeble, we didn't need any complex 3D setups.

The artists we worked with found Beeble to be a game-changer. Our compositing team had direct creative control over the lighting, something relatively unheard of before, especially without going back to rendering or requiring additional passes. It really helped to tighten the feedback loop and enabled the team to iterate faster and more freely.

What challenges did Beeble solve during post-production?

We handled many shots in a short amount of time during Superman & Lois, so deadlines were a big factor in our work. We mean hundreds of shots to be delivered in under three weeks, so Beeble's ability to generate AOVs almost instantly was absolutely crucial. It completely removed the need for rotomation and geo-tracking, saving us a lot of time and labour while retaining the quality.

It also helped us in a creative sense, not just operationally. Because we had shorter render cycles, we could use lighting in unique ways to drive the narrative forward, which helped us convey the emotional tone and polish many of the shots we delivered.

Superman & Lois was released before the SwitchLight 2.0 launch. Have you tried it yet?

Yes! We've been actively integrating SwitchLight 2.0 into our pipeline. It's even more artist-friendly, and the AOV generation and UI responsiveness have seen massive improvements.

What's been truly valuable is the support from Hoon Kim and his team at Beeble. They've been listening to our feedback and implementing the suggestions they find useful. That level of responsiveness has not only made the tool better, but has made using it a great experience.

Learn more about SwitchLight 2.0.

Courtesy of Boxel Studio