The brief was to create an animated title sequence for the 2014 Playgrounds festival that reflected something experimental, eclectic and artistic.

The designers responded to this by developing the concept of a ‘digital playground’, which is represented in a warped urban landscape.

The team applied the effect of stretching pixels to motion and volume in order to create the final graphics. The first gave them surreal and abstract shots, combined with elegance and subtle color tones.

They then developed this further to produce the final piece. All of the shots were fully CG and created in Maya, with a very light amount of compositing done in Nuke, as the team wanted to create something visually pure and fast to render, before the 2D post effects such as circle shots, frames and typography were created in After Effects.

By introducing moving planes, cars and trains, the directors wanted to create the idea of a journey through a surreal world, which also added an element of life and humanity to series of cold and sober images.

They used photographs in some instances to create the colours seen on the refracted hairs, and developed the textures using a hair simulation system in Maya. Various techniques were also used to experiment with the stretching and animation of each pixel’s volume

The sequence created helped bring the brand values and articulation of the festival to life before and during throughout the event, engaging and exciting the attending audience.

Playgrounds is an international digital arts festival for innovative and creative digital art.

During the four-day festival in Tilburg and Amsterdam, Playgrounds presents an impression of the latest developments in technology as well as creativity.

The festival programme offers an inspiring mix of artist talks, inventive films, animation, graphic design, character design, games, interactive installations and performances.