Going Nowhere | Motion Graphics, Sound Design
A title sequence created for the short film ‘Going Nowhere’.
Moodboard
I wasn’t given access to the script or raw footage but was given a sneak peek by the colorist for the general colour palette. I was also told a brief synopsis of the film: it is a tragedy that follows the journey of a man, who is down on their fortune, and his spiral into madness and emptiness. Considering this, I elected to find images that felt evoked a sense of atmospheric dread and uneasiness.
Base Model and Animation
By employing chiaroscuro to a structure - a bridge as I chose - I planned to layer it with atmospheric effects and faux camera effects. I elected not to make any big camera movements.
Bridge in Cinema 4D with a matte grey material applied.
One frame of the C4D output.
Development Process
Having exported the animation as an image sequence (with transparency), I set about compositing in After Effects.
I also imported the C4D project file to extract the camera data.
There was no logo for the movie so I elected to go simple with Helvetica. I feared if I use a serif font, it may turn out looking like a horror title,
I composited smoke and fog both in front and behind the bridge to start building the atmosphere. I made the layers 3D in order to move with the camera.
After I layered static dust and scratch images as 3D layers. I also added a layer of Trapcode Particular to add additional movement.
After composing a simple audio drone on synthesizers, the final step was to refine the visuals with effects. I used Magic Bullet Looks, Sapphire Glow, Sapphire Warpchroma, Gaussian Blur, and CC Vignette.