In 2018 we were commissioned to prototype Symphony of Noise, an immersive art installation based on the work of Matthew Herbert
Given the tight constraints on production time, we went for a pure shader approach for the production design, thus avoiding time consuming work on textures and animations.
The only part that we animated manually is the car crash scene where we used a combination of techniques: The cars body behaviours are following a physically "accurate” simulation (on cubes), the deformations are driven by a spring-shaped skeleton and the flying character is a dynamic blend of two captured human motions
An interesting aspect of that scene is that the viewer is positioned in between the two cars which (conveniently) push each other as the impact occurs. As the time is almost frozen, the viewer can move around and listen to the.. symphony of noise
The final piece includes 7 scenes, 40 shaders with parametric animations (from basic planktons sinusoidal deformations to a full car traffic simulation, see in the first video above, from 00:20)
Because the whole concept revolves around sound, we made sure all our shaders are audio reactive (imagine swimming in the middle of blinking plankton)
Some early shader research:
Production design and shaders by Guillaume Couche / Wolf in Motion
Simulations and animations by Guillaume Couche / Wolf in Motion
Interaction design by Charlie Fuller and Guillaume Couche / Wolf in Motion
Produced by Kloos & Co Medien
Co-Produced by Up Creatives, Reeperbahn Festival, VRHam!
Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe MEDIA, Creative XR and Digital Catapult, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung
Co-Produced by Up Creatives, Reeperbahn Festival, VRHam!
Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe MEDIA, Creative XR and Digital Catapult, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung
Release page: Symphony of Noise