2019: Procedural Worlds

Client: NA
Tutor(s): Gina Moore, Chris Gray

Brief: In this studio we will use Houdini 3D animation software to produce original animated content that leads the viewer through a variety of intriguing worlds.

The emphasis will be on environmental storytelling and each student will design and create their own unique 3D world (which might be photoreal, stylized or completely abstract). Towards the end of the course, individual animated sequences (produced by each student) will be combined to form a longer visual journey.

The finished work Automation is an atmospheric journey through landscapes from a future world. Enabled by advanced technology, this is a world where forests are cultivated by robots, factories are self-sufficient, buildings can grow themselves, and cities are self-organizing. Organic and technical life are now entirely entangled, and we find human cities in previously impossible locations. Although somewhat utopian, the tone of this film is ambivalent, suggesting that a fully automated world may have a dark side. Automation was produced as a collaboration between Animation students and Digital Media (sound) students from RMIT University. There are four different soundtracks for the film and each one gives the animated landscape a different tone.

This studio was delivered as part of the AIM Studio 3 course within the Bachelor of Design (Animation) at RMIT University.