The Loc Studios Expands into 3D and on-set VFX
November 3, 2026
FITC’s 2026 Web Unleashed conference opened in Toronto in Late October with this sequence from local studio Escafandra, a return engagement after creating the titles for the brand’s flagship FITC event this past spring.
Luis Mejia, co-founder/CD at Escafandra: Web Unleashed is a front-end developer conference, so our main challenge was creating something completely different from the hand-drawn and analog style we developed for FITC, exploring a more digital look and feel.
We looked for ways to make our renders less perfect, not striving for photorealistic 3D, but instead using illustrated textures for the leaves and branches, stylized 3D overall, voxels, pixels, and dithering.
“The most fun and satisfying part of the project was putting everything together… striking a perfect balance of intentionally losing information while still communicating the core story of the titles.”
The story picks up where we left off with FITC Toronto: Rebirth, a journey that ended by merging cel animation, 2D and 3D into a totem. Now, showing the inevitable passage of time, we follow a journey of decay, where these rigid systems break down and the visuals degrade along with it, as we make space for new life/art to grow.
The most fun and satisfying part of the project was putting everything together: the 3D and type, and making multiple iterations to get a good dithered image or pixelated type – striking a perfect balance of intentionally losing information while still communicating the core story of the titles.
Client: FITC
Founder/director: Shawn Pucknell
Production: Escafandra
Team: Julieta Tobon, Luis Mejia
Music/Sound Design: Leo Grand
