THE PROJECT
For this project, I created a short film, fully animated in 3D. I am constantly inspired by shows like "Love Death and Robots", by the professional artists I follow, what they’re capable of, and what they create using those skills. I am doing this because I want to be a part of this group of creatives I look up to, while also incorporating as much knowledge as I can of 3D and Graphic Design.
I want to offer the audience, an experience, and potential inspiration for those who want to take on a project like this.
RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION
I LOVE SCIENCE FICTION
Throughout all my works, I am almost always either consciously or subconsciously inspired by movies like Alien, and Blade Runner, and smaller projects like, "Astartes", and Love Death and Robots.
One day I hope to achieve the level of quality and skill as those I look up to, and this project is the first step towards that.
EXPLORING DIGITAL AND ORGANIC DESIGN
FROM HUD TO CREATURES
In all my works, from large projects to small ones, I like to use ancient Greek words and names. Me being Greek, allows for a more personal connection to the material. So I went with the name "EREBOS", God of Darkness and the twin of the Goddess of Night, a perfect name for a company made to help humans into deep space.
A PATH TO A NEW WORLD
BUILDING A BRAND AND ITS EVERY MOVING PART
A SPACE AND ARMS MANUFACTURER
In this short, a large part visually and story-wise is this Corporation that has a monopoly on spaceship manufacturing. I initially wanted it to be sharp when working on the logo, to show the Corporation is evil/will do evil. But decided to go with a softer logo design, with more rounded edges, to show this is just a normal company, that won't give the Earth's nations an ultimatum on the death of millions if they don't receive total control of the world...
THE NOMENCLATURE
In all my works, from large projects to small ones, I like to use ancient greek words and names. Me being Greek, allows for a more personal connection to the material. So I went with the name "EREBOS", God of Darkness and the twin of the Goddess of Night, a perfect name for a company made to help humans into deep space.
Our main character, "Aster" was named for the Greek word "Aster" meaning "Star". Building off of that, the position of Scout is categorized by the title Coeus, named for the inquisitive god, meaning to literally question. Fitting I think for a position built on discovering new worlds inch by inch.
Aster's ship is named the "io" for the goddess who wanders the stars, and the outlier of them all, the main ship is named ZUSE, for the character in Tron Legacy, a movie which I adore.
CREATING AND ANIMATING THE BIKE
For the bike, I wanted it to seem like it had been used and not fixed up for ages, and give it the "put together on the fly" look. To do that I kitbashed many of the parts, to really sell the idea of it being a mess of different types of machinery that somehow make a functioning hoverbike.
From there it was just about animating the screens and different moving parts to help give it life.
FORGING ASTER FROM SCRATCH
SHAPING A HERO
From the beginning, I had rules for modeling the design of Aster. My works are usually more organic, and often detailed and complicated, but fo Aster, for this universe I made, I felt they should have a more simple, practical, streamlined look.
I also decided that Aster would be the first thing I finished when doing this project. And so only two weeks in, my main hero was finished. some further tweaks were made to the helmet, again to streamline, and from there I added all the detail I wanted, from branding to personal touches I thought Aster would make to their own suit. Striving for individuality when you are just a number.
CREATING A STORY
CONNECTING TO THE MATERIAL
When coming up with the story, I wanted to think of something that I'm passionate about and that's slightly tropical in theme. From that I decided to go with a story based on conglomerates and monopolies having too much control, and how anybody who works under them can feel like nobody, just a number, a cog in the machine. Destined to stay on mission aware or not that they're stuck. Figuratively or literally.
We start in the year 2103, a corporation known as the EREBOS CORPORATION, which has become the number one manufacturer for all nations when it comes to Space Travel. They invented a way to leave our solar system in the morning and come back in time for dinner. Because of this, every nation has 10s of missions constantly out discovering and mining materials from new worlds.
At this time EREBOS has become aware of its power over the nations of the world, and came to them with an ultimatum, one that will change the lives of billions. But in those billions of changed lives, there is one that was truly changed.
This story follows Scout 32. A scout who is a part of a team known as the COEUS. This team is a somewhat highly skilled group that accompanies every new mission set to find new worlds. Their job; is to document, and discover everything they can of these new worlds, and make the unknown, known.
WORLD BUILDING
I WANT YOU TO JOIN THE SCOUTS
Some additional content I would have loved to include and still might, are these propaganda posters, and a commercial advertising regular citizens to join the fight for discovery, and to join the Scouts. This commercial would include a higher resolution and longer version of the sequence below. My favorite part about projects like this is truly, in detail, creating entire worlds, and universes that until recently have only ever existed in my head.
MARKETING THE FILM
To help market the film, I recreated famous movie posters with my character in its place.
(From right to left: AKIRA, Blade Runner 2049, Ferris Beuller's Day Off)
FINAL THOUGHTS
My expectations for this project and myself have remained the same since the beginning. To deliver an experience and one that I feel quality lives up to the expectations I have for myself. Of course, there is a lot more detail I would have loved to add, and if I could, I would probably work on this for another year. But all projects must come to an end
This has also allowed me to learn so much not only when it comes to branding, 3D modeling, compositing, and animating, but when it comes to truly thinking through every decision and being smart and particular about what stays and what goes.
