In 2013 Jarrod Smith (without a doubt one of the most talented technical directors I’ve met) and I set up a company to answer briefs like this. For the better part of three years we worked on some incredibly diverse projects, but working with Method Studios on Del Kathryn Barton’s short film adaption of The Nightingale and the Rose (Oscar Wilde) was a definite highlight. Method Studios brought to life her vision with some very impressive model building, stop motion and digital animation - but the complexity of the background plates proved to be a problem. Del Kathryn Barton’s work is distinctive in many ways, but the intricate detail of her negative spaces was impossibly challenging for animation software at the time. We were commissioned to solve this challenge.
We analysed her style and found three particular clustering characteristics (placement, colour and shape) which we managed to reproduce in a software solution that armed the artists with the right tool for each scene. We also helped animate the background for the climatic final scene, which needed a few special touches. The final film is a work to behold, and very telling of the commitment of the artists and filmmakers behind it, we were humbled to play a part.
Here’s the full technical execution write up on our old website.
ACMI behind the scenes exhibition for the full production.
The film won Best Australian Short Film at the 2015 Melbourne International Film Festival.
Exaggerated for effect here, each element was simulated with collisions so there are never intersecting dots
The plates were rendered in 4K for compositing with foreground elements
Screenshots from the app we developed in Processing.
An example of the ‘tendril’ streamline placement in action
