Geneva-based CG motion artist Albin Merle just dropped us his latest Blender experiment based on the Bloom Stool by Swiss product designer Mael Sandoz, exploring the interplay between organic and artificial materials in furniture design.

Albin Merle: “The Bloom Stool combines a 3D-printed seat with wooden legs, symbolizing the meeting point of digital fabrication and traditional craftsmanship. The animation reveals the object’s assembly in a dynamic sequence, exposing the stool’s internal structure and highlighting the tactile qualities of each material.

“The creative direction came directly from the stool’s design and the materials used to craft it. We wanted to highlight the contrast and harmony between synthetic and natural elements, focusing on the 3D-printed polymer seat and the wooden legs.
 

“Our goal was to reveal the inner beauty of both materials, showing how they grow and form, whether through natural processes or artificial fabrication.”

 
“Our goal was to reveal the inner beauty of both materials, showing how they grow and form, whether through natural processes or artificial fabrication. To emphasize this, we placed the sequence in a warm, natural light so that sunlight would subtly enter the frame.

“The most challenging part of the project was the wood slice sequence. We needed to understand how a tree grows and cracks in order to recreate its annual rings and organic texture procedurally inside Blender.

“This required developing a custom procedural shader that could mimic the unique irregularities of real wood, while keeping the effect flexible enough for animation. All visuals were created in Blender and rendered with Cycles, the grading and editing was done in After Effects.

“The sound design began with field recording in the forest, capturing natural wood sounds. These were transformed through granular processing and EQ into synthetic tones, mimicking the qualities of plastic. The music blends Euclidean rhythms with orchestral percussion, Japanese taikos, and analog beats, creating a sonic bridge between natural and synthetic worlds.”
 
 

 
Director/animator: Albin Merle
Product Design: Mael Sandoz

Music/Sound Design: Liam Phan