After working on numerous CGI projects for Toyota using their car models, they allowed me free use of their assets to create a white-card piece.
The inspiration for this film came from my personal fascination for the complexity and beauty of a car’s headlights. I love the visceral and mysterious look that exudes from a car in total darkness with its lights turned on. The small amount of environment being revealed in their lights creates a selective window of perception that opens up the imagination, especially on the red tinted tail lights side.
Anything out of this cone of light remains a mystery, which is where I wanted to place a world particularly designed for these cars, a world that is their driving ground, their territory, that would be gradually revealed.
Gravity, like time, is a subject that is fun to play with because of our own lack of control over it in the real world. Inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama, we created a tubular world with a custom gravity that feels singular for the cars, it feels intimate as the space is entirely folded on itself, and yet it is still infinite as one can feel the world can go on indefinitely in either directions. This combination of light, darkness and environment also allowed for very unusual photography and camera angles.
This is led to a quiet, relaxing and non-climactic short movie that tells the story of a different world, with different protagonists and a different purpose.
Credits:
CG/Direction: Julien Vanhoenacker
Animation: Alejandro Garcia
CG: Joaquim Montserrat
Music: Cliff Martinez