This is a personal CG project built in Houdini and rendered with Karma. Some modelling and animation were done in Cinema 4D, with compositing in Nuke.
This project came from a desire to understand things on a deeper level. Not just the technical side of CG, but why certain shots feel alive. Why some images carry a sense of scale, atmosphere, tension and presence.
A large part of the process was spent studying scenes from Star Wars. I kept pausing frames and analyzing the lighting, composition, depth, detail density and camera movement. What interested me was not the visuals themselves, but the feeling they create.
The project stretched over a long period of time. I kept taking long breaks because of my studio work and returned to it mostly on weekends. In many ways, it became a process of research and exploration. An attempt to get closer, on my own, to the level of craftsmanship I had always admired.
In the end, the final shot consisted of 35 main render layers. Combined render time across all layers was around 2 minutes per frame on a single RTX 4090 and i9 13900, not including previews, tests and countless iterations. In total, the project took over 800 hours, with more than 200 hours spent on the final render alone.
Huge thanks to @eldyshov_diomid for the encouragement at an important stage of my career.
Additional thanks to @stusyan.md for support with animation polish.
Thanks to @gleb_kurilkin for feedback and guidance on texturing X-Wing.
Inspired by the cinematic language of Rogue One and the work done by @ilmvfx
Music:
Star Wars Theme by John Williams
Arranged & Orchestrated by @samuelkimmusic
I used to think that if I became good enough, I would finally feel some kind of inner stability.
That there was a point where the complexity of the work, the level of execution, and the amount of time invested would automatically turn into a sense of personal weight. As if mastery could give not only skill, but also the right to feel significant.
Maybe that’s why I was always drawn not just to beautiful images, but to the ones that carried scale, atmosphere, tension, and presence. I didn’t want to simply look at an image - I wanted to feel inside it. And the stronger that feeling became, the more I wanted to understand how it was created.
But this project forced me to confront something I had been avoiding for a long time.
I made it as a test of my own capabilities. Not as a statement, and not as a personal story. I wanted to know whether I was capable of getting closer to the level of visuals that had always earned my respect.
And when I finished it, instead of the sense of grounding I expected, there was this strange emptiness.
Because the level of execution alone does not solve the question I carry inside myself. It does not automatically turn effort into value, or complexity into a feeling of significance. Especially now, when there is too much content, and high visual quality is no longer something rare.
And maybe that is what I struggled so hard to accept all this time.
Not AI. Not the industry. But the fact that for too long I tried to find a sense of self-worth through making what I create more and more complex.
But if you remove the need to prove your weight through the result, something quieter and more honest remains:
I am still genuinely moved by the feeling of a frame itself.
The light. The space. The camera movement. The atmosphere. That moment when a shot begins to feel alive.
And maybe that alone is already enough to keep moving forward.
Behind the scenes of the project “100 Years Ahead” for Russia 1 and Partnership.
In this shot, I worked on simulating ferns and other plants — from the first tests to the final tweaks.
Sometimes the result is just a few seconds on screen, but they are what make the on-screen world come alive.
#VFX #Houdini #FXartist #CGbehindthescenes #FXworkflow #CGcinema #GuestFromTheFuture #ГостьяИзБудущего #Anora
Some people build complex simulations in Houdini.
And some are still figuring out how to delete the cube in Blender.
And you know what?
Everybody wants this.
#blendermeme #cgmeme #3dmeme #cgfun #cgcommunity #blenderhumor #3dhumor #motiondesign #vfxartist #3danimation #artistlife
A project that closed the loop of time for me.
What once inspired me as a child has now become part of my work.
Past and future finally met.
In this shot, I worked on simulating ferns and other plants in Dobro Studio.
#ForTheFutureThatInspiredMe #IOweMyDreamsToThePast #TimeConnectsUs #GuestFromTheFuture #ГостьяИзБудущего #CG #VFX #MotionDesign #FilmArt #FutureAndPast #VisualStorytelling #TimeLoop #RussianCinema #Films #oldfilm
Behind the scenes of the project “100 Years Ahead” for Russia 1 and Partnership.
In this shot, I worked on simulating ferns and other plants — from the first tests to the final tweaks.
Sometimes the result is just a few seconds on screen, but they are what make the on-screen world come alive.
#VFX #Houdini #FXartist #CGbehindthescenes #FXworkflow #CGcinema
A fragment from the project “100 Years Ahead” for Russia 1 and Partnership.
My contribution was simulating ferns and vegetation to bring the frame to life with details.
VFX is when every sway of a leaf and every movement in the frame appears not by chance, but thanks to hours of work and precise adjustments.
#VFX #HoudiniFX #CGmagic #CGI #FXsimulation #VFXbreakdown
Shots from the project “100 Years Ahead” for Russia 1 and Partnership.
In this shot, I was responsible for simulating ferns and plants — as part of a large and inspiring team effort.
Every detail on screen is the result of countless hours of experiments, tests, and refinements. Even if it lasts just a few seconds, there’s an entire creation story behind it.
#VFX #Houdini #CGI #VFXartist #Showreel
