animation

Hechingen Film /  by James Whitaker

In 2010 a German advertising agency approached us to design them a low cost workplace in the Black Forest, just outside the town of Hechingen. Sadly though the advertising agency stopped trading before the project was realised. The client was keen to use shipping containers to keep costs low and needed a small office that would encourage the growth of their company. Taking inspiration from crystal growth in a science laboratory and the soaring towers of Hechingen Castle, we arranged 11 containers in this radial form. The upper containers trace the sun’s path through the sky while the lower containers provide an array of quiet working spaces that all open onto the central heart of the office. In 2010 I spoke to Gardiner & Theobald in Berlin who had just finished working on a steel building. They knew who to buy shipping containers off in Rotterdam and the perfect metal fabricators in Hamburg. After fabrication, the modules would be transported to site where they would be bolted together, sitting on top of concrete columns rising from the foundations. As the site was a green field the design is quite independent of the location and we have been looking for a new client to take the project forward with. This film has been created for own enjoyment with all animation and modelling done in 3DS Max and rendering done with VRay. ___ Whitaker Studio is dedicated to storytelling. Through photography and computer generated imagery we can help show the world your design in a clear and beautiful way. Working with architects, planners, designers and developers from the moment an idea is conceived, we render visuals to the highest standards to present that design to the world. Whether your project is at conception or completion, we’d be happy to hear from you to discuss how we can bring it to life.

I'm delighted to present a short film that I've been working on recently - Hechingen Studio

Hope you enjoy it!

Someone once said to me that if you are going to make a jeans company concentrate on making a really good pair of jeans before you start selling t-shirts. I thought it was pretty good advice so I've been concentrating on stills up to now, making sure that they are as seductive and polished as can be. However when I was an undergraduate at uni I was a bit of a geek and used to teach animation on the post-graduate course. A couple of years ago I made a short film for fun with my brother and a bunch of friends and it went on to win a film festival in Canada. So we know a bit about making nice films. We approached this film in the same fashion as we would approach a live footage piece, working up a storyboard and then animatic, before editing and fine-tuning the shots, then we worked up the animation to what you see above.

For the geeky amongst you all animation and modelling was done in 3DS Max, rendering with VRay and post-production in Adobe. Rebus Farm was used to outsource some of the number crunching and the music was found on Musicbed. If you'd like to know any more feel free to ask in the comments section below.

You can read more about the building in this article on Dezeen.