_________________________________________

ALL WE KNEW AND EVER LOVED

________________________________________

PROJECT PRESENTATION

I was thrilled when Earthside, a cinematic rock group I had long admired, approached me to direct the music video for their new song, "All we knew and ever loved." The challenge was significant, however, as the song was almost twice as long as any video I had previously created. But, together with my trusted partner Sylvain Favre, we tackled the project head-on, determined to deliver a compelling visual story within the constraints of a small team and limited resources.

╋   SOFTWARE USED

▸  Cinema 4D

▸ After Effects

▸ Houdini

▸ Marvelous Designer

▸ Substance Designer/Painter

╋   SKILLSETS INVOLVED

▸  Storyboarding

▸ Creative Direction

▸ Modeling / Animation / Lighting 

▸ Shading /Compositing

▸ Editing

╋   VARIOUS DATA

▸  182 Shots

▸ 9 m 17s

▸ 8 months of works

╋   CLIENT / PARTNER

▸  Eartshide Band

▸ Mascot Record

▸ Sylvain Favre

▸ Hadrien Palanca

▸ Avner Engler

STILLFRAMES

A short selection of some stillframes from the clip.

BREAKDOWN

Part 1 : Script and Art Direction

FIRST SCRIPT / MOODBOARD

To tackle the challenge of the 9-minute runtime, Sylvain and I developed a creative concept that would make the most of our limited resources. We structured the story as an "there and back", in which the protagonist travels from point A to point B, and then returns to point A.

This allowed us to only design half the clip in terms of environment, making it more feasible to produce.

We developped the story and the Moodboard specifically to solve every constraint we had :

╋   CONSTRAINTS / SOLUTION

▸  Length of the music video : Structured as a round trip story

▸ Quantity of animations : Motion capture technology

▸ Quantity of environments : Artistic direction based on open,
empty spaces and creative use of lighting

ART DIRECTION vs CONSTRAINTS

Defining the art direction was a critical step in ensuring the success of the Earthside music video project. We recognized that it was essential to establish a clear vision for the project, both in terms of the desired mood and the resolution of potential issues that might arise during production.

To achieve this, we developed an art direction approach that focused on four primary elements of the clip: materials, characters, mood and environments.

╋   MATERIAL REFERENCES

▸  Triplanar Materials : Avoid the UV unwrap except for the characters.

▸ Blend between Mineral and Organic : Merging the characters with their environment.

▸ Several Scales and details : To be sure to have procedural detail from closeup to long shot on the same material, avoiding the necessity to rework every materials regarding the various shots.

╋   CHARACTERS REFERENCES

▸  Half human : Characters had to have a stone material mixed with skin shading, avoiding the odd barrier when realism is not at 100%

▸ Similar but differentiable : Both character had to look alike to each other, but needed to be differentiable as one is the older brother and one is the younger brother.

╋   MOOD REFERENCES

▸  Main inspiration : We've decided to make a tribute to one of our favorite artist, Zdzisław Beksiński.

▸ The style of Beksiński : The style of beksinsky had this captivating blending between ultra detailed part and other part that are foggy, as in an unfinished dream

╋   ENVIRONMENTS REFERENCES

▸  Scale contrast : As our first short film, Beyond us, was displaying a huge hero in empty places, we choose to go to the opposite direction : Tiny heroes in gigantic environments.

▸ Anachronistic : Environment cannot be precisely defined in term of time, making it had to know whether it is an ancient relic or a world from the future.

BREAKDOWN

Part 2 : Storyboard and Final Story

FROM STORYBOARD TO FINAL STILLFRAMES...

Storyboarding is a critical and mandatory step for me at the beginning of a production, particularly for short-form storytelling. This is especially important when creating a clip without sound design, dialogue, or voiceover, where image composition is crucial to conveying the story.

While it may be tempting to search for camera angles directly in the 3D scene, this approach often results in a shot that merely works well in the scene, rather than conveying what the story and shot require.

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 1 Shot 1 part 2

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 1 Shot 7

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 3 Shot 3

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 3 Shot 8

╋   COMPOSITION RESEARCH

▸  By defining each shot in advance through a storyboard, I create the precise composition that each shot needs to convey the required emotion, sensation, conflict and story.

▸ The focal length is already defined at this stage, allowing for a quick edit/storyboard Slideshow edited to the music to validate all sequences.

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 3 Shot 9

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 4 Shot 1 

╋   SHOT DIVISION & EVOLUTION IN PRODUCTION PROCESS

▸  Given the length of the song, we divided the film and story into 13 distinct sequences. The final storyboard, consisting of 145 shots, was approved before production began.

▸ During the production process, shome shots undergo changes between the storyboard and the final product, while others are removed during editing. Additionally, some shots may be added during production to address issues with editing and story comprehension. As a result, the final film contains a total of 182 Shots

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 4 Shot 6

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 4 Shot 7

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 5 Shot 2

Storyboard vs Final Stillframe Scene 3 Shot 10

FINAL STORY

Part 2 : Storyboard, Research and development

BREAKDOWN

Part 3 : VISUAL AND TECHNICAL RESEARCH

FIRST MOOD / ENVIRONMENTS EXPLORATIONS

After completing the story and storyboard, our first objective was to obtain a 'proof of concept' visual as quickly as possible to validate the artistic direction. We chose to conduct this test on Shot 3, Panel 3.

I was responsible for modeling the enormous stone statues while Sylvain conducted initial research on materials, lighting, and rendering.

Sylvain also conducted technical research on propagation and fields, which are essential for the second part of the story in the clip.

TECHNICAL RESEARCH 

To tackle the challenge of the 9-minute runtime, Sylvain and I developed a creative concept that would make the most of our limited resources. We structured the story as an "there and back", in which the protagonist travels from point A to point B, and then returns to point A.

This allowed us to only design half the clip in terms of environment, making it more feasible to produce.

We developped the story and the Moodboard specifically to solve every constraint we had :

╋   CONSTRAINTS / SOLUTION

▸  Length of the music video : Structured as a round trip story

▸ Quantity of animations : Motion capture technology

▸ Quantity of environments : Artistic direction based on open,
empty spaces and creative use of lighting

FIRST ANIMATION TEST

 Motion Capture Integration test by Sylvain Favre

FIRST ROPE DYNAMIC RESEARCH 

 by Sylvain Favre

C4D Destruction Test 

 by Sylvain Favre

Cinema 4D Rope Dynamic 

 Based on Spline dynamic linked to a physical constraint cloner.

Rock raining simulation 

 by Sylvain Favre

DOOR DESTRUCTION 

 By Avner Engler. A "bubble" had been added to the caracter to increase destruction level.

Final ROPE SIMULATION + MOTION CAPTURE 

 by Maxime Tiberghien

PLATFORM DESTRUCTION IN HOUDINI

 by Hadrien Palanca

MAIN CHARACTER DESIGN AND TEXTURE

After completing the story and storyboard, our first objective was to obtain a 'proof of concept' visual as quickly as possible to validate the artistic direction. We chose to conduct this test on Shot 3, Panel 3.

I was responsible for modeling the enormous stone statues while Sylvain conducted initial research on materials, lighting, and rendering.

Sylvain also conducted technical research on propagation and fields, which are essential for the second part of the story in the clip.