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Watch Mehdi Hadi’s New Sci-Fi Short Film “Memories”

Posted on Friday, November 21, 2025

The latest short film to emerge from Motion Plus Design’s Made With program in partnership with Maxon and Adobe, Memories finds director/CG artist Mehdi Hadi building an atmospheric post apocalypse and its mechanical lifeforms.

Mehdi Hadi: “My intention was to explore memory not as simple data storage, but as something deeply human, emotional, fragile, and incomplete. Instead of building a traditional narrative, I approached the film as a universe to enter, more than a story to be told.

“My goal was for the world to feel as if it had existed long before the viewer arrived, leaving space for interpretation rather than explanation. I’m naturally drawn to dark sci-fi atmospheres, mechanical lifeforms, and decayed environments, so the visual language evolved from that instinct.

“The overall tone was influenced by Japanese/Coreen cyberpunk, tech-noir cinema of the 80s/90s, and industrial/abandoned photography, which are references that have always fueled my imagination.

“My goal was for the world to feel as if it had existed long before the viewer arrived, leaving space for interpretation rather than explanation.”

“Because mood is such a core part of my work, I treat color grading as an early creative tool, not a finishing touch. I start experimenting with LUTs and grading tests very early in the 3D process, sometimes even before the assets are finalized.

“This allows the visual identity to become a directional compass for lighting, composition, and texturing. By the time I reach post-production, 90% of the emotional tone is already inside the raw renders, which makes the final grading lighter, faster, and more coherent.

“Another important aspect of the project is that I work almost entirely alone, and that in itself is a huge challenge both creatively and technically. It requires managing every discipline — world-building, design, animation, lighting, rendering, editing, sound, and storytelling while staying consistent and objective.

“Technically, the real challenge was achieving coherence and visual density while keeping production realistic. Because my scenes contain a large number of assets, heavy rendering could have become a blocker. To solve this, I used 2D plates and image layers for distant or secondary background elements.”