MAKE Announces Three Winners of the 2025 Animation Thesis Grant
December 6, 2025
Director/3D animator János Nyujtó (whose spec Nike spot we featured in Stash 173) returns with another ambitious personal experiment, this time in the guise of a product film for a fictional wind power generation and storage system.
János Nyujtó: “In this animation, I wanted to create a heavy industrial atmosphere showing the birth of a wind-turbine-based sand-battery system from an otherworldly perspective. The film doesn’t aim to explain how the system it works, it’s more of a mood film, focusing on tone and presence.
“The film doesn’t aim to explain how the system it works, it’s more of a mood film, focusing on tone and presence.”
“The turbine and sand-battery units were modeled from scratch in Cinema 4D, with Houdini handling the fluid and smoke simulations. Every frame was rendered in Redshift.
“The compositing and final look were saved by my friend András Pflum, who refined the balance of tone and light in Nuke. The music and sound design were created by Leo Richter, whose work gives the film its distinct flow and atmosphere.
“This is a portfolio project; no client was involved. Festein is a fictional company created to provide narrative context.”
Director/animator: János Nyujtó
Colorist/Compositor: András Pflum
Sound Design: Leo Richter
Toolkit: Cinema 4D, Houdini, Redshift, Nuke
