Hemlock

Role: Creative Direction, Design & Animation Year: 2019

Director Natalia Marty asked me to design the title sequence for Hemlock, her experimental short about a girl who loves nature but is deathly allergic to it. The sequence explores nature, isolation and liberation.

Concept

Hemlock’s father traps her in a room wrapped in plastic to protect her from anything living. I built the titles around that tension: the beauty of nature that corrupts the flesh.

Process

I learned Mandelbulb, a 3D fractal tool driven by mathematical equations, to grow microscopic, organic forms for the sequence.

Work-in-Progress Renders

Style Frames

Type Animation

Zach Hixon animated the type with a burn-on reveal that echoes nature devouring the flesh.

Title Logo

I ran the Mandelbulb renders through Google’s Deep Dream Generator, which reinterprets an image in a learned painting style, and transformed them into white type on black. The tool handled the tedious part so I could focus on the design.

Credits

Direction

Creative DirectionDesmond Du 😉

Film DirectorNatalia Marty

Design & Animation

Design & AnimationDesmond Du

Type AnimationZach Hixon