Final project: Searching for Life

View on Youtube for 1080p.



Aesthetic

The short is meant to convey the wonder and mystery of space, as well as, have a small narrative about a computer controlling a spaceship possibly in search of life amongst the stars. The cellular automata I made, I wanted it to look like lights on a computer mainframe so I made each cell fade out like a little LED turning off. The music is a techno piece that I believe adds to the aspect of wonder, awe, and mystery.

Conceptual

For my final project I wanted to extend my previous project with fractal flames and incorporate them into a short animation piece with an outer space theme. I also wanted to make a cellular automata that looked like computer mainframe lights inside a spaceship. Basically, the whole idea was to take some generative art concepts and make them part of a larger piece of work.

Technical

The fractal flames were created in apophysis in 1080p. I rendered 200 flames but probably only ended up using 50 or so in the final piece. I used After Effects to create the motion in the flames as well as the light rays. The 3D parts where created in Maya, I made a spaceship model and modeled the interior spaceship set. I also did the lighting, shading, and camera animation. I made the cellular automata in processing based on Conway's game of life. I made each cell block a continuous color that is picked from a random set of about 6 colors mainly different shades of red, blue, or green. More cells are randomly placed into it to keep it from dying out. I then composited this into my maya scene so it appeared to be a computer mainframe.