Art direction

In our small 3-person team I was responsible for developing the look of the animated segments during the film. We decided early that we wanted to have these segments to visualize talking points, with the added beenfit of higher flexibility during the editing process.

We settled on abstract 3D graphics, resembling small-scale architectural models and wax-like surfaces with soft colors and lighting.

Modeling

The first step was to get the accurate terrain of the location where the tree planting took place. I used imported height data in combination with OpenStreetMap to get positions and blocks for the buildings.

To achieve the density required for a forest in a large scale model, hand placing thousands of trees was out of the question. I built a procedural tool in Geometry Nodes that allowed me to distribute the different collections of tree meshes over any surface. I have control over the size and density of the trees through weight painted maps.

Animation

The documentary is fully voiced through our protagonists. The point of the animations was to underline their messages while simultaneously giving my colleague extra footage to make the edit work. To stay true to the art direction of having architectural models, I almost exclusively animated camera and lighting and left all models static.