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[Premiere] Colonize an Alien Planet in 3D Animation ‘Space Diaspora’

Humans leave Earth to colonize another planet and become ever-evolving beings in 3D artist Moritz Reichartz’s video for
Images courtesy the artist

Space opera is typically best left to the page and screen, but the Berlin-based electronic duo OY throw caution to the wind with their new concept album, Space Diaspora. Full of looping vocals, tribal drums, and avant-garde flourishes, the album tells the story of humans jettisoning Earth to build a better existence on a new planet. The space opera gets an incredibly colorful and hallucinatory accompaniment with 3D artist Moritz Reichartz’s video for the title track, which shows the first stage of this interstellar journey in action.

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“The song is the beginning of this space opera and tells the story of the departure and transformation of planet Earth in and onto Space Diaspora,” the duo Joy Frempong and Lleluja-Ha tell The Creators Project. “We couldn’t have been more lucky than to have Moritz Reichartz illustrate and interpret this story for us. The clip allows further imagination and interpretation, and so we invite people to participate and build their own story.”

"The idea of the video an escape from our hyperspeed, repetitive, and restricted world into a new world," Reichartz adds. “The new world is a place of absolute freedom and endless transformation.”

As Reichartz already proved in Hands Off [A.I.], as well as in his virtual interpretation of Ai Weiwei’s Stools, he is fast becoming a master of 3D animation and textures. A lot of the work here is so stunning that the viewer will know it’s CGI but want to believe it isn't. There is a very convincing weight and presence to objects, and the ever-evolving textures, while fantastical, add to the sense of science fictional wonder.

Reichartz created the world of "Space Diaspora" in Cinema 4D, and in an experimental move, used only 40 keyframes (for the camera work). To create the particle simulations in the rocket blasts, Reichartz used the Cinema 4D plugin X-Particles, and rendered it in Octane.

“Technically speaking, the video is generated almost without keyframes, which are a traditionally an essential tool for computer-based animation,” Reichartz explains. “I worked with these techniques for the last two years as I found they often produce unforeseeable, better than imagined results that are filled with a lot more life and provide a wide spectrum of outcomes to choose from.”

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Judging by his last few videos, it’s clear that Reichartz has found an impressive CG animation method. Whatever he cooks up next is bound to impress.

OY’s album, Space Diaspora, is out now on Crammed DiscsClick here to see more of Moritz Reichartz’s work.

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