Permanent Collection

Johan Kropp Drops the Hammer in “Dead Head” Short film

Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2025

Johan Kropp, a self-taught post artist based in Berlin makes his Stash debut with the short film Dead Head, a personal and visceral homage to vehicular muscle and a showcase for his 3D, design, editing, and compositing skills.

Johan Kropp: “This project is born from a deep, enduring Fascination with cars – not just as transportation, but as a confluence of design, engineering, and pleasure. High-performance vehicles represent one of mankind’s great industrial achievements.

“The complex action of Fuel igniting and driving everything forward, connecting the rubber to the asphalt. Seeing that happen as a kid, always stuck with me. There’s something about that intense process that just feels deeply gratifying, in a primal way.

“This project is born from a deep, enduring Fascination with cars – not just as transportation, but as a confluence of design, engineering, and pleasure.”

“The most challenging thing was the lighting and color, while smoke sims and technical challenges took a lot of time to figure out as I had to learn certain tools from scratch.

“Redshift will be my new renderer of choice for future projects given its flexibility. However Octane is still a very impressive engine and has consistently received updated versions so hats off to Otoy for that.

“The automobile has advanced alongside our species. That distinctive sound, the combustion engine, is the violent signature of that. As a cleaner and brighter Future approaches, I wanted to record the emotions as I remember them. I hope one day this helps someone understand that feeling.”