I had the honor of creating a main title sequence for Motion Plus Design, thanks to my friends Kook Ewo & Ronan Guiton.  The conference highlights motion designers from around the world, where they showcase unique approaches and experiences in the design industry.  The titles are based around the theme of Digital Alchemists.  Similar to the alchemists of past centuries, the speakers at Motion Plus are using new media techniques to achieve results that mystify viewers.  Alchemy is also considered a spiritual practice of putting the soul through strenuous trials to achieve purity.  All the speakers at Motion Plus have gone through trials with their work over the years, which has allowed them to emerge with a pure defined style.  The piece uses analog glitch effects that get progressively more distorted and eroded, revealing a pure figure at the end.  
 

The opening and closing shots feature a table covered in various technology used to create the piece itself.  An occult alchemist would utilize various tools for chemical reactions in their workshop just as digital alchemists use unique hardware for their practice.  The tools include a Trinitron CRT television, Tachyons Plus Dreamweapon, Roland SPD-SX, waveform tone generator and a multi-channel mixing board.  The set-up was photographed as a still-life on a table and then captured as 3D models using the process of photogrammetry.  Then the scene was rendered in cinema 4d & octane. The closing shot features a silhouetted figure within the TV static, which was shot in-camera. The footage was then processed through the Tachyon Dreamweapon and used as a video texture in Cinema 4D.

Alchemy is often intertwined with astrology and zodiac signs, associating the expansive galaxy with our lives on earth.  Throughout the titles, skeletons of zodiac animals emerge and drift through space.  The skulls were used as a reference to the idea of legacy.  Often after we die, our bones remain as a symbol of our existence.  In the digital age, artwork is like our bones, drifting through the web as a remembrance of the artist that has physically passed beyond this world.  Just like the zodiac is a connection to the universe, our digital works are a connection to something much bigger than our mortality.

Various animal skulls were captured through the process of photogrammetry.  Thanks to Logan at Paxton Gate in San Francisco, I was able to take several photos of a ram, bull, scorpion and human skull.  I then used Agisoft Photoscan to create 3D models from the photos, which were then rendered via octane renderer and cinema 4D.  

Spiritual alchemy often focuses on the journey towards purity of form, so cymatic reactions were used to visualize the progression of abstract particles forming sacred geometry.  A waveform generator was used to create defined tones that would vibrate a metal chladni plate, which would cause sand on the surface to shift into specific geometric configurations.  Different tones generate different patterns, so the various passes were filmed and then sped up in after effects to create dynamic transformations. One processed by the low-resolution CRT television, the sand particles appeared to be TV static forming into sacred geometric symbols.

In addition to the speakers names, sacred symbols appear throughout the piece.  Alchemists often used symbols and metaphors for their texts so that only certain people within their field could understand their findings.  The symbols used in these titles were based on historic alchemy books along with symbols from motion design software.  Grid systems and contemporary design elements also interact with the re-mixed alchemy symbols.  The speaker titles use every weight of Gotham to animate in and out.  Each letter cycles from thin to ultra-bold as they slide into position, which tie the titles together with the main Motion Plus Design branding.  

The entire piece was processed through a CRT television and the Dreamweapon by Tachyons Plus.  Special thanks to Logan from Tachyons Plus for building the gear and helping me understand how to use it.  This treatment was used in order to make the piece feel like an old VHS video from the 90s.  Since many alchemists studied from sacred books, it made sense that a digital alchemist would study from something like a sacred VHS tape.  The video was first composed in after effects, then run from the computer through a series of signal converter boxes.  The video was then run through the Dreamweapon, where several combinations of the switches or knob turns would result in wildly different glitch looks.  None of the settings could be saved, so the presets had to be copied down on custom paper templates.  After filming several different glitch takes, the videos were lined up and re-cut in Adobe Premiere.  

Design, Animation: Peter Clark
Modeling: Brittnie Diamant
Music Composition: Peter Clark
Music Mastering: Brian Hazard - Resonance Mastering
Special Thanks: Kook Ewo, Ronan Guitton
In Collaboration with: Tachyons Plus, Paxton Gate