How long is the lifespan of a utopia? What happens to those that expire?
For this project I revisited my childhood ideas of what a utopia could look like and reflected on what I’ve kept, lost and left behind.
For this project I revisited my childhood ideas of what a utopia could look like and reflected on what I’ve kept, lost and left behind.
2022 // 2:48 min, 3D animation, Blender & Davinci Resolve // Propädeutikum - Fachprojekt Animation, 4 weeks
Process
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/6a9cae2f-b136-4c99-946e-bc490907376d_rw_1920.png?h=6a8fbee1402320a04be28b3a73b4724c)
The theme for the project was utopia. I wanted to create a piece that centered on the time aspect, so I began to think about what utopia has meant to me over the years. Stability, change, relationships, passion - depending on what was going on in my life, but time keeps moving and lot of my old ideals or plans for the future have faded.
I wanted to depict this feeling of change on neutral ground, so I tried to abstract it in a way that kept the emotions behind it recognizable.
space debris was my first animation using blender, so I decided on a low poly style to ensure I would have enough time and wiggle room for the learning process.
concept art
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/6b84fea2-1d98-4a5c-adc2-9f48832891d7_rw_1920.png?h=12ddfe577750a1c5e9c58e4c08bf1d2a)
In preparation for the project I drew up a rough draft of my idea and created an animatic. The animatic leans more heavily on my references and also features scenes in the "real world". I decided to leave these out because it felt too heavy handed.
The topics that inspired the planets were - my childhood home, my cultural ties, old friends, hobbies.
method
![prompt for ice cream planet](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/959e2d4d-502f-4ae7-8be5-bf75da2a8584_rw_1200.png?h=0a9aa8f82d4f37a14ed8f65eee2fa6a3)
prompt for ice cream planet
![base storyboard](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/2a3c3f43-4589-410b-ad42-a9421c8e2839_rw_1200.png?h=5dcd9d77d74c70cae6834773bd33d1b0)
base storyboard
![keyframing](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/4e07e479-df94-4bed-951d-a23e84f7fe6c_rw_1920.png?h=586d95b16d5086a9b9120034de8a425b)
keyframing
The planning for each scene started with a very vague storyboard and a planet design. Every planet features an introductory, retrieval and exit scene. After the first planet I realized that sketching in 2D wasn't always compatible with my 3D workflow, so I came up with a prompt for each planet that I wanted to be in the final scene. I then began to focus on sketching out movement patterns over plot.
![example of orbits](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/64378957-fdb5-4998-bea4-a0c2c4ac8aa7_rw_1920.png?h=d379ef5e68a75bcfb53f2de6ffeadfaf)
example of orbits
The movement of the spaceship is quite straightforward, so I was able to play with the camera movement as well which made things feel more dynamic despite their simplicity. I mainly worked with rotation & orbits. In total I made over 30 scenes and roughly 20 of those made it to the final render.
![text draft](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/946df464-5ecd-4d0f-9d50-0c287669636e_rw_1920.jpg?h=62c614710c37cb43a0316170ff042340)
text draft
![beginning text](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/e62bfcc6-5fcf-4a86-af0f-d394d6d5c5ee_rw_1920.png?h=a954ee3a7472261485df0108eddfd1c4)
beginning text
![end text](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/494f2430-860a-4d44-9a4e-d8d3cf2fce08/7c4e9a3e-1a3c-4e8f-9958-2cab2fe94987_rw_1920.png?h=5145780100dc21e2bb015bcf46ef7ed9)
end text
The final step in the project was editing the footage. My original plan was to create a voiceover of a poem I had written, but I felt that it was superfluous and took away from the immersion. So I picked out some of my favorite lines and spliced them into the text above to tie everything together.
The music and sound effects are from artlist.io.