Bernat Casasnovas Takes us Behind The Pulpit to Show How He Made his #ConceptDo Piece.
This is the second time I have taken on a #ConceptDo project, so from the moment I was approached I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the project.
Like my first piece, which was titled ‘Device’, I wanted ‘Divine’ to focus on smooth, futuristic technologies in a clinical sci-fi mode. For both pieces, I took as inspiration ConceptD’s own back-catalogue of creator devices; its trademark black on white color schemes, the rounded corners, and smooth textures.
These product features provided characteristic outline of what I wanted to create in ‘Divine’, but as its title suggests I wanted to give the whole thing an air of reified mystery. You cannot tell by looking what the device does; it requires the viewer to guess, but its slow deliberate animated movements — which seem at once robotic and ritualistic — hopefully point to the idea
of this being a holy relic of the machine and information age.
In order to put all of this together, and to get the sliding components and flashing lights of my device just right, I used Cinema 4D and Octane Render. To begin, I had to model the hard surfaces to get the texture and shape of my dream device just right. Then it was a case of getting the shading and lighting just how I wanted them.
As mentioned, the goal of ‘Divinity’ was to impart a sense of the technologically sublime, so the shading and lighting had to be on point.
I decided to create the right holy type of atmosphere with a clean, clinical, off-white backdrop. I exalted this with a halo-style glow which rebounded and reflected off the device.
I also decided to give the device opulent little details to make it seem otherworldly — small golden colored fixtures which glow like a papal ring, a matte-wood effect finish on the prow of the D, sat like a bequiffed pompadour worthy of a King. These little bits and pieces set amongst the synthetic body of the device, mixing the natural with the man-made, the archaic with the modern, and the eternal with the ephemeral.
This was then all composited in AfterEffects, where some finishing touches were added and the whole thing was rounded off.
I hope to impart a sense of wonder to the viewer, both as they try to figure out what my mystical ‘D’ device is for, and in a more metaphorical sense, as they piece together the ultra-modern device and link it to more naturally ‘Divine’ iconography.
