Sibanesihle Shezi

Real-Time Unreal Artist · Johannesburg

I build Unreal worlds
for LED walls, launches
and ads.

Two years as the only Unreal developer at Digital Union, building the render pipelines and tools the team works through.

Brands my work shipped for

  • LED tunnel
  • Launch previs
  • TV spots
  • Launch worlds
  • Event previs
  • Launch worlds
  • Conference content
  • Stage previs
  • Stage previs
(01)Case study Saudi Arabia · February 2026 · Digital Union

World Defense Show

A 25 m LED tunnel and a mixed-reality wall at World Defense Show 2026.

What I built
The nDisplay setup for the tunnel, built to its real panel sizes and gaps. The team rendered the other worlds through it. Land for the tunnel and the MR wall, then Air, Security and the menu for the wall.
Constraint
One world had to read as a single shot on the MR wall and wrap around the tunnel's walls, roof and floor.
Result
130 000+ visitors came through, by the show's count.
Renders and editor captures
The show, then my part.
nDisplay layoutWalls, roof and floor
MR previs
LandTunnel and MR wall
(02)Case study Johannesburg · 2026 · Own project · Interactive Unreal

Meridian

Runs live on one RTX 3090 Render quality, in real time99 frames a second, sharper than HD. A buyer drives it themselves.

A three-bedroom house on a Fourways stand, in Unreal 5.7. Buyers ask where the sun falls in winter, so you can drag the clock and see it for that address, on 21 June or 21 December. The finishes change across the whole house in one tap, the roof lifts off for the plan, and you can walk it or let it orbit.

Drag the sun, switch the finishes
Live in Unreal

Finishes

Highveld Warm Joburg Charcoal Marble Light
(03)Case study Cape Town · 2026 · Projection-mapping previs · Digital Union

Mercedes-Benz CLA launch

The previs, with the team's projection on the silos.

The Silo District rebuilt to scale in Unreal, so the CLA launch projection could be made to fit the real building.

What I built
The silos to real measurements in Unreal Engine 5, with the stage, set, car and LED screens placed.
Why
The content had to fit seven cylinders and the gaps between them. The team needed that face at true scale, and a look at how their work would read on concrete.
Result
The launch projection was built to this model. Each round I was asked for turned around in 1 to 2 days.

The real place

The set on the plaza beside the silos. 1
The projected face by day. 2
  1. The set on the plaza beside the silos.
  2. The projected face by day.

Photo 1: Mercedes-Benz South Africa, Instagram

Photo 2: taken on site by the team

How it was built

  1. Previs
    01

    The silos to scale with a test grid, front-on.

  2. 02

    The same grid from a point-of-view camera.

  3. 03

    The stage, set and car placed on the plaza.

  4. Built up
    04

    Lit and shot.

(04)Case study Car launch · August 2025 · Digital Union

iCAUR V23 launch

My cut of the launch film
Final Lighting only Lighting only Final
Drag across: the same frame, lighting pass and final.
What I built
The car shots in the launch film: lighting, camera and the look.
Launch
Festival of Motoring, Kyalami, 29 to 31 August 2025.
Kept
The brand kept my renders in its own launch posts.
The reveal, on iCAUR South Africa's channel
The launchKyalami, August 2025. Footage: iCAUR South Africa
(05)Case study Property pitch · Late 2025 · Digital Union

Helderfontein Estate

Helderfontein EstateDome and panoramic screen
What it was
A pitch for a property estate. Visitors sit in a dome and preview the estate on a panoramic screen.
What I built
Everything from the dome in: the lounge, the screen worlds, the lighting and the people. The models are bought or supplied.
(06)Case study TV spots · 2025 to 2026 · Digital Union

Jackpot City

The spot: the F1 car through the city
Render time per frame 45 min to 4 minRedshift on the Canada spot. Unreal by the 2026 South African update.
Problem
The Canada spot was made in Maya and Redshift, at 35 to 45 minutes a frame. It went to a cloud render farm twice.
Constraint
The comp still needed Redshift's passes, and the Maya work had to come across.
What I built
A USD route from Maya into Unreal, and the pass list rebuilt in the Movie Render Graph. A world that swaps per version, with South African landmarks I modelled by hand, Ponte City among them. Moving people, grass, interior-mapped windows and stadium crowds on vertex animation textures.
Result
The South African versions rendered over a weekend on the studio's own machines, at about 4 minutes a frame, with no farm bill. They aired on TV in South Africa and across Africa.
Editor captures
PassesUnlit, emissive, volume only, final
Interior mappingRooms behind flat window planes
Crowds
(07)Contact Johannesburg, South Africa

Get in touch

Email
sibanesihleshezi@gmail.com
Phone
+27 61 589 5165
LinkedIn
Sibanesihle Shezi
Instagram
@shezitheartist

Client work is shown with permission. More work under NDA can be seen privately on request.

I build in Unreal by hand: layout, lighting, cameras and look. I also program, in Blueprints and Python. For tools and pipelines I work out the architecture, how the parts fit together and how it can grow, and these days AI coding agents write a lot of the code from that. Nothing ships until I've run it in the engine myself.

Sibanesihle Shezi · Johannesburg Technical art and real-time rendering pipelines
Contact