The idea was to create a cycle of life that conveyed the concept of evolving and adapting, rather than replacing the old. We were inspired by films like Annihilation, which explored similar themes. The scene illustrates the markings of progress and transformation as we watch the subject, breaking from the constraints of time and reaching out for another lease of life. Staying stagnant is to give up and not strive for something more.

The horror aspect of the scene purposefully clashes with the visually beautiful flowers that engulf our characters. The intent was to inspire a way of looking at the old body as a catalyst for the new. As we move forward, we respect the journey we have been on and use it as our bearings on where to go next. The character was built in ZBrush, using Adobe Substance Painter to create the skin and textures that build up the fleshy, worn looking body. We then rigged the character in Maya and created bespoke animations that showed struggling movements of a being coming to life.

Our vision for the environment was to create a space that felt beautiful once before but has fallen into decay. Huge glass windows were added to give as much natural light as possible, alongside a sense of grandeur. We used timelapses of flowers as references, to make sure ours felt realistic, despite their unnatural growth in such a small space of time. We also aimed for the entire piece to feel like time had elapsed over a long period, yet we are seeing it play out in 30 seconds.