The Vaste series was made possible with the financing support of
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Brief
Ink Sticks & Stones is looking for simple and minimalistic visualizers for their new album Vaste. The concept of the album is centered around the Canadian Boreal Forests. They are interested in a video that is for the most part a fixed image with little visual overlays to keep the content interesting. They are also open to simple animations.
Case Study
I was assigned two videos out of a series of 5. I had just heard about a photorealistic, real time, gaming software called Unreal Engine that was being used more and more for cinematic purposes. I approached Ink Sticks and Stones to see if they were interested in using Unreal Engine for the project. Being able to create a photorealistic scene in the Engine I could then animate a camera adding very minimal movement. With this method we can reveal the vastness of the forest throughout the song rather than stay static on an image. They were very excited about the possibilities and agreed.
Vaste III is an homage to the trees of the Boreal Forest, their strength, stability and longevity. The ask was for it to be the slowest moving one of them all. The piano at the beginning of the song was compare to the soil of the forest so we began grounded on the earth. The bass creating experimental sounds represents saplings emerging and the trees growing. The camera slowly dollies up as if the audience is growing with the trees. Eventually, a vibraphone enters representing the canopy singing in the wind. The leaves of the tress moving with the wind create dazzling beams of sun. Ending with the reveal of the immense forest.
Ink Sticks & Stones was thrilled with the outcome so we decided to push it even further with Vast V.
Vaste V marks the end of the album. The idea was to start the song above the trees with complete cloud coverage. As the song progresses and more instruments come in, there is less cloud coverage and more trees. It was very important to have a clear ending to the visuals of the boreal forest landscape. They wanted to leave the audience entering a new, unknown and mysterious landscape. With the use of Unreal Engine I was able to create the forest immersed in clouds. Using a top shot we dollied across the landscape only to reveal an massive body of water in the end.