Artist Daniel DeLuna (who also teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology School of Design), extends the fragmented geometry of his prints and paintings into abstracted motion with his new short film Pernicious Percussion.

Daniel DeLuna: “This animation draws direct inspiration from the mid-century modernist album covers of Persuasive Percussion and its companion Command Records series. Geometric precision and rhythmic repetition echo the visual language pioneered by artist Josef Albers and graphic designers Charles E. Murphy and Barbara Jean Brown.
 

“The result is a kinetic homage: an audiovisual abstraction that transforms the static elegance of record sleeve design into a vibrant, evolving system of color, form, and rhythm.”

 
“Created using a hybrid workflow in After Effects, Cinema 4D, and TouchDesigner, the piece leverages the strengths of each platform. In Cinema 4D, MoGraph cloner tools generate tightly synchronized arrays of spheres, lines, and cubes that move with a mechanistic musicality, while custom particle systems introduce controlled bursts of energy, simulating percussion hits and stereo panning.

“TouchDesigner injects a layer of unpredictability, distorting the clean geometry with glitch effects (pixel smears, color displacements, and temporal feedback loops) that fragment the otherwise orderly design, reflecting both sonic texture and digital decay.

“The result is a kinetic homage: an audiovisual abstraction that transforms the static elegance of record sleeve design into a vibrant, evolving system of color, form, and rhythm. It celebrates both the analog craft of mid-century graphics and the generative power of contemporary digital tools.”
 
 

 
Director/animator: Daniel DeLuna

Audio: Daniel DeLuna