Director and 3D motion designer Freek Freriks just dropped us his latest CG experiment, a short film that balances abstraction with hyperrealism as it merges stone, water, and flora into a meditation called “Wāḥa”, the Arabic word for oasis.

Freek Freriks: “I’ve been traveling to all kinds of remote deserts in the last decade and I always wondered how I could capture these experiences in a motion design visual language while staying away as much as possible from recreating the landscapes. I wanted it to be more abstract with multidisciplinary influences.
 

“I’ve been traveling to all kinds of remote deserts in the last decade and I always wondered how I could capture these experiences in a motion design visual language.”

 
“For a long time I didn’t have an answer to this question until I started experimenting with Houdini two years ago. After struggling with the software for a while I accidentally made a simple VDB growth setup that had potential.

“At that point I started directing my learning experience towards making a one minute short film. In hindsight, that decision was overly ambitious and delusional but after grinding for another 1.5 years in between client projects, I finally finished it.

“In the beginning I really had no idea what I was doing in Houdini, so I just played around until I made something that could stick to the concept and the three elements. This was super time-consuming but very fun and Houdini turned out the be great for an experimental but intentional approach like this.”
 
 

 
Director: Freek Freriks

Title Design: Martijn Hogenkamp @ PlusOne

Audio Design: Kloaq