‘Diffraction’ Creator Nicole Wu Shows the Light Behind her #ConceptDo Piece
As soon as ConceptD contacted me to be the next creator in their #ConceptDo D-doodle series, I began looking for ideas as to what I would do.
The natural world and architecture are constant sources of inspiration to me. I often spend my time observing my surrounding environment to see which shapes and compositions I can turn into art.
Along with this, I wanted to experiment with how you can add a foreign object into a surrealistic scene and still make it look natural, as if it belongs there. This is where the idea for constructing a ‘D’ out of tightly constructed bars came from — I wanted to create something otherworldly, yet still believable. This fits in with my style ‘Surrealistic Nature’ which I love to do whenever I can.
I chose the setting to be the bay window of a Hockney-esque swimming pool, and modeled it to look like the child of a modern architect’s leisure space and a surreal dreamscape. Amid this fusion, the floating ‘D’ looks almost natural, as if it could be part of an art instillation at a private resort, and to mimic its real-life environment the ‘D’ undulates above the pool in a wave effect.
My idea was for the bars that make up the ‘D’ to sun themselves on the window ledge, changing between the Pantone Colors of the Year — Ultimate Gray 17–5104 & Illuminating 13- 0647 — as if through a process of photosynthesis they were warming themselves and transforming.
This process of transformation, this storing of energy and swift color change, then leads to the ‘D’ exploding, and it’s bars to become displaced, while still flashing between gray and amber, as the serene color changes suddenly detonate their energy.
I created more or less the whole thing in Cinema 4D and Octane Render — the modeling, movements and shading were all perfected here, as well as the looping effect of the whole video, playing into the idea that this very man-made ‘D’ could be part of the natural environment, replenishing itself and starting again after its destruction.
In getting all of this together, I struggled a little with composition in my piece. I wanted the whole image to look balanced and sometimes if you add too many elements on one side your eyes will immediately focus on that side, causing a sort of lopsided perspective to everything.
I persevered though, and that would be my advice to anyone trying to create in general; never give up! The more time you invest in deciding to get better the faster you get to developing your own style that you are proud of.
When people see ‘Diffraction’ I want them to feel a sense of escape from reality, while at the same time reminding them of how wonderful the outdoors can be — a message I think we can all relate to right now.
