Melita was my first collaboration with Futurelighthouse before my year-long stay there. Most of my work in the project consisted of designs for the futuristic interfaces used by the characters, and I helped to build the 3D models and create the textures for those holograms, combining 2D iteration in the form of concept design with fast 3D real-time prototyping, that allowed me to show the holograms in their environment very soon in the process.

A lot of storytelling information needed to be conveyed by the holograms related to the search of the characters, Anaya and Melita, of a new planet for humanity, Aurora. the biggest challenge was communicating this information while staying within the stylized aesthetic established on the short film (already in production). Both color and form language where iterated a number of times directly with the director, with concept art at the beginning but relying more on fast prototyping as the project progressed.

The premise was that Anaya, an Inuit scientist in search for a new planet for humanity, had designed the operating system for this task herself. A lot of effort was put in research of the Inuktitut language, and fragments of legends about the Inuktitut constellations where used as a source of the fragments of texts seen in the holograms. This alphabet also influenced greatly the for language used in the holograms, especially on the aspect of triangular modularity.

Other elements sharing the same aesthetics where created after the holograms of the milky way where complete, including an interface used by the characters to launch a spaceship and the UI and HUD used by the user in the interactive experience included with the short film. I created textures and 3D models to directly implement all of them in the real-time engine Unreal, as well as designing some of the materials. I also provided consultation for the animation of the characters in the interaction with the holograms and the UX of the interactive experience.

The final design included a cold color gamut and the triangular form language that was determined very soon in the process. A lot of thought went into the amount and disposition of detail and information, especially in the scene of the discovery of the planet, when the full power of Melita, a bionic AI, is displayed. The final 3D hologram included a complex rig with procedural animation, numerous particles simulations controlled in real time and animated materials with multilayered information. The use of 3d models and real-time iteration very soon in the process allowed a better collaboration with all the departments of the awesome team at Futurelighthouse, especially in regards to lighting and animation. I also helped with the creation of the last scene, as the ship, the corsair princess, gets on her way to Aurora. The image below is a 360 panorama, drag or touch the image to look around.