3D animation brings ai weiwei + yayoi kusama's best known works to life

the artistic oeuvres of legendary artists ai weiwei and yayoi kusama are brought to life through this animated, CG rendered short film that makes the impossible possible. as part of his thesis project at SCAD, ziye liu ideated, directed, composed and completed ‘themes & variations’ — a film that uses digital graphics to create new interpretations of existing artworks. in this four minute long visual journey, viewers experience weiwei and kusama’s installations as they never have before. 

ai weiwei’s original sculpture ‘grapes’ is made of 32 qing dynasty stools

ziye liu’s film generates new interpretations of some of ai weiwei and yayoi kusama’s best known installations. using visual effects — such as texturing, lighting, rendering, and digital composting — liu turns static sculpture into dynamic objects and animated artworks.

ziye liu introduces an exaggerated continuation of the original spiral structure

‘contemporary art such as conceptual art, kinetic sculpture and installation art all have a resemblance to the visual characteristics of computer generated imagery,’ liu describes. ‘the style of much contemporary artwork is very similar to the style of visual effects technique. the difference is that most of the artwork is static and restricted in motion, while visual effects provides infinite possibilities and will bring these artworks to a new level.’

the 3D modeling has been based on the actual dimensions of the original work

ai weiwei’s wooden structures feature in another scene of ‘themes & variations’

the animation shows the progress of how the polyhedron evolves and develops into a larger sculpture

the 3D model is manipulated in infinite possibilities

‘polka dots’ is a series of works created by artist yayoi kusama

the artist’s ‘polka dots’ pattern grows upon the surface of a modern architectural environment

the pattern was created using renderman RSL language, with a technique called ‘texture bombing’

yayoi kusama’s narcissus garden is explored in scene 4

mirrored orbs sweep across the interior environment 

the film explores the idea of giving new possibilities to contemporary artworks

project info: 

director: ziye liu
modeling, texturing, lighting & rendering: ziye liu
compositing, editing, music & sound: ziye liu
original soundtrack: ‘on the matter of motion and light’ composed by ziye liu

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