I created and own all the Images and Videos in this post.
<< WATCH GLOBOSOME ON VIMEO >>
Inspiration
When I started studying at the Animation Institute, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in 2005, New Orleans got hit by Hurricane Katrina. 1836 People died, mostly the less fortunate. But Katrina wasn’t the only storm to form over the atlantic that year - in total there were 26. More than were ever recorded in any season.
This incident fueled my interest in climate change and I started caring about the state of our planet. I went out and interviewed climate scientists, read books and papers and what I found out scared me. It seemed that with our way of life, we were on the path to flood most of our major costal cities, eradicate millions of species from our planet and put the survival of our own species into peril.
I started wondering if other civilizations on other planets had collapsed before us because they couldn’t make the move from rapid growth to sustainability. The history of civilizations on our own planet certainly made it look like that. Over the next couple of years, while learning my craft as a film maker, this question never left me, so when the time came to choose a topic for my graduation film, I started developing Globosome - a tale of another civilization on a planet somewhere in space - a warning if you will.
Design
I knew I wanted to tell the story of another planet as if watched through a telescope or microscope - their dominant species resembling microbiological life. So I made the species the simplest design imaginable - a sphere. It made animating large crowds easier and allowed me to show them replicate without being explicit. :)
Something that I noticed when doing research with google maps was, that small human villages in remote parts of the world still blended into nature organically whereas bigger cities (especially newer ones) have a very distinct, efficient, inorganic look to them. With that came the idea of two principles competing on the planet. The organic plants and the dots that developed straight connections and rectangular shapes in their cities. In the end, the latter would „win“ but the civilization would collapse as well. I started doing drawings and then concept art paintings as well as animatics where I was able to try pacing and different perspectives to tell the story.
Tech
For the execution I chose 3dsmax - my weapon of choice for many years. 3dsmax has a large pool of plugins that one can tap into without constantly reinventing the weel. I used „Thinking Particles“ for the characters - a very powerful node based particle system. Patrick Schuler created a template that made it possible to direct hundreds of dots at the same time, having them collide with the terrain and each other. He also created a connection system that resembled the „Plexus“ plugin for After Effects which was released years later.
For the plants I used another plugin: GrowFX. This plugin made it easy to both sculpt and animate the plants. The film was also realized in Stereo 3D which was tackled by Andreas Feix. We rendered in multiple passes so Johannes Peter had the maximum amount of control in Nuke.
Sound & Music
As you probably realized by now, lush, beautiful imagery is very important to me. Still, Music and Sound make up for at least 50% of the mood. I worked -again- with the amazingly talented Patrizio Deidda who composed the music and we had the Filmorchester Babelsberg play the score. Trying a few things, we settled with an epic classical score that - although hearing it probably a thousand times in the editing process - I love to this day.
Sound Design was done beautifully by Nami Strack. The sounds of the dots are done with our mouths - especially Gottfried Mentor, a real voice Acrobat. These recordings were then sped up and manipulated until we had the right amount of cuteness/creepiness.
What happened since then
Since it’s completion in 2013, Globosome has travelled the world, receiving prices or honorary mentions at various cool Festivals. It also inspired both the iOS Game: Path of the swarm by Navel as well as a tech prototype for a new kind of game engine based on precomputation that we realized in San Francisco. I'm incredibly happy and thankful for this development.
Since the first inspiration, mankind has mostly accepted climate change as true and here in Germany, renewable energy generation has made a giant leap. However, the warming curve has still not changed substantially but with the Paris climate deal ratified by the two biggest polluters (USA and China) i’m a little more hopeful by now that we have a better chance of not ending up like the Globosomes in my Film.
www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6184141822764285952
www.facebook.com/geddart
www.geddart.de
@geddart Sascha, this is such a beautiful film and as the inventor of 3ds Max it makes me happy to see this -- and also to meet you here on Steemit. I just started posting here last week and hope to see more of your work and more work from other super creative artists like yourself. Seeing Globosome reminds me of when I was at Siggraph in Dallas 1990 and saw Karl Sims' "Panspermia". You have realized the dream that Sims began dreaming 26 years ago. Danke!
Gary!?! Is it you?!? Oh dear it is you!!!
What an delightful surprise to meet you here - and what an honor!!! First of all, thank you for creating 3dsmax - giving me the means to do what I love! Second, i'm so happy you see the link to Panspermia! I loved that film when I saw it years ago. I realize I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. ;)
Ok, this seems to be a great community!
Yah Sascha, it's me.... I've surfaced here on Steemit to be a small part of this grand experiment. It has such potential and It'll be fun for us to see where it goes. And hey... it's an honor to meet you because you actually know how to make the tool sing in such a beautiful way. All I could ever do with it was make teapots. :) One of the reasons that I moved on from the 3D world is that I was tired of the banality of video games and needed to fill my life with more analog imagery. Perhaps if people were doing work like Globosome I'd still be working on Max (but we'll never know, lol). I'm following you and look forward to hearing more from you soon. -g
Yes, I'm also trying out different social networks right now. Keep an eye on Synereo!
I actually created a LOT of teapots over the years. :) Best.primitive.ever! Do you still keep an eye on the development of 3dsmax? How do you feel about the development of the software after you left?
I lived in SF last year - next time I'm there, I'd love to meet for coffee or beer!
Thanks again for reaching out. I'll post more of my work soon!
Synereo... fascinating! Yes, will keep an eye on that for sure. Ah, the Newell Univ of Utah teapot... was one of the most influential shapes of my life. (Well, that and the Stellated Icosahedron :) I don't really pay much attention to what's going on in the synthetic world anymore... spent way too much time in there living on the deferred life plan. Now living in meat-space all the time and am grateful for it. And yes.... we could even have lunch and go for a hike together next time you're here! Looking forward to seeing more from you and of course I'm following. Be well!
wow! I am definitely following you now. Glad you found Geddert!
I'm glad I found him too! And Leah, your story is fascinating.... followed.
Amazing work. Thanks for raising awareness about that topic. Looking forward to seeing more of your work here, so I just followed you.
Wow! I just watched it, absolutely amazing work :-)
Unfortunately, the industrialists have managed to convince many people that climate change isn't real. Idiots like Alex Jones, present climate change as if it is part of some global plot; when the opposite is true.
99.4% of the (relevant) scientists on the planet believe that climate change is happening. Yet most of us decide to listen to the 0.6% who (are mostly paid to) say it isn't real.
Very sad.
Cg
yes, the certainty of scientists was undeniable when I talked to a few of them. It's happening and happening fast!
This is absolutely amazing. You are extremely talented. Globosome was so ridiculously amazing, I wish it was a longer production! By the way, I can verify Sascha's identity as I found his work and also checked out his Linkedin profile:
Here's the linkable Linkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geddart
My jaw is still on the floor. Feeling kinda talentless after looking at that. Stunning.
It's un-freaking-believable????? Talent doesn't really get any better than that!
Thank you so much everyone. I'd love to show you the 3D version of the film! I should put it on youtube...
This is a very important subject of discussion and thank you for making it. You have highlighted the issue so vividly so that it opens up more of an audience and that requires great talent. So, for continued discussion, are you in the school of thought that complete and utter destruction is needed before re-birth, or a combination of half-destruction and renewal, or a dual-system hybrid that beacons in a new era with an old system working actively next to a new system? It is something that we are working intensely on also with Solarcoin, ElectriCChain and Solcrypto.
I think it might need to get worse before it get's better. Sometimes a shock event (like Katrina for me) is what's needed to wake people up. I hope that doesn't mean utter and total destruction. What are you doing to make a better system? I'd love to hear. Fortunately good things have happened in the last couple of years. (But remember, this summer set a new global temp. record... again.
Your work is incredible. The images are so vibrant and seamless that I feel like I've visited another world!
thank you!!! :)
Will climate change destroy the world? Only time will tell
Loved the movie. I know complex scenes take a long time to render. How long did it take to render the entire movie?
A frame was about 45mins up to 5 hours. Realize it was also in stereo. (x2) I'm happy to report that the filmakademie where I did the film is using renewable energy by now.
I too am a 3ds Max artist. You have done a wonderful job. @yostopia pointed me in your direction. It is pretty neat to have him on here. Keep up your excellent work.
I love your film. Optimistic!
Congratulations. It is a lot of work and a new approach to climate change. I follow you and I'm looking forward to see Synereo. Well done
Congratulations @geddart! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about this award, click here
Congratulations @geddart! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!