Seed in Seed
2021 MIT IAP 4.s14 Course Work
Maya Animation + Arnold Rendering
Date of Project: Jan. 2021
Teamwork with Jingyun Ma
The narrative of this work is set on a planet where the volcanic eruption controls the cycle of lives on the planet. Every few decades, the fierce volcanic eruption brings out lava, which wipes out all the living creatures and relaunches the biological evolution.
The story starts with four different plants unique to the planet. Depending on the evolution phase they have reached, those plants have different scales. They bud, grow, get ripe, and broadcast their seeds. While the volcanic eruption could lead to the extinction of their lives, they rely on the steam from volcanoes during mild seasons. The reproduction is an embodiment of the antagonism to the instability of the planet and a consequence of volcanic eruptions. We believe this paradoxical relationship is poetic and mirrors our eco-system on earth.
The plants often start with a primary shape, get deformed by the hot flow and dust, and finally become alien to our experience. This animation has not been finished. We would like to bring in the theme of micro-ecology after these clips. The similarity between the forms of particles, seeds, and plants leads us to imagine the possibility of a looping animation, where the planet turns into a particle or a seed with the camera zooming out. All the lives have gone with the wind, but the planet itself becomes a seed, carrying the hope and despair from the past, and experiencing a new life cycle.