Project

Festival des Forêts

Year

2020

Role

3D artwork and animation

Description

A violin, a flute, a piano. Against white, their materials emerge before leaves begin to cover them. A series of 3D sequences bringing music and woodland together.

The starting point

It began with a logo.

Bastien first asked me to animate the Festival des Forêts logo. I imagined a 3D opening: a violin suspended in white, a camera moving along its strings, then leaves carried by the music. That proposal became the starting point for the project.

An instrument in suspension.

With no ground or scenery, the violin first appears as a white form. The camera moves from a detail to its full silhouette. This movement was already central to my first proposal: discovering the object by travelling around it.

Materials

Varnished wood. Polished metal.

A golden flute set diagonally against white, showing its keys and metallic reflections.

Detail of a red wooden bowed instrument, showing its strings, bridge and f-holes.

Detail of a dark wooden upright piano, showing its keys and front against white, before the plants appear.

Shots conceived around music.

I proposed sharp cuts timed to the string attacks. The opening also needed room for the film’s text and had to connect with Bastien’s edit. Close-ups and instruments isolated against white offered several ways to compose the sequence.

Transformation

The forest reaches the keys.

Leaves take over the instruments.

Close-up of a golden flute covered in small leaves, set diagonally against white.

A whole bowed instrument suspended against white, with foliage covering its wood and strings.

Strings and fingerboard of a red wooden bowed instrument, surrounded by foliage against white.

A dark wooden upright piano with green plants covering its keys and front.

Form before colour.

White was part of my idea from the start: hint at the instrument before revealing its material. These shots retain that stage on screen. Strings, keys and forms are defined by their shadows, with almost no colour contrast.

White forms

White strings and bridge emerging from a pale surface.

White violin and bow suspended against pale grey.

White flute revealed by folds and shadows on the surface.

An opening became a series.

I ended up producing more 3D shots than the film required. The collaboration with DEZDO also became an opportunity to take the materials, lighting and animation further. The montage below brings together this series of instruments and their transformation.

Credits

Visual concept and 3D animation: Anthony Cavel
Film direction, editing and coordination: Bastien Pradeau
Production studio: DEZDO films
Festival artwork · 2020 edition: Aurélie Cas
Festival des Forêts director: Alexandra Letuppe-Pantic