In December 2014, French director Loïc Bramoullé trekked solo to Myanmar to shoot reference and background plates for a short film he describes as a mix of District 9 and Ron Fricke’s 2001 Buddhist-themed documentary Samsara.

The resulting animated fantasy, called “Strange Alloy,” was produced during 2.5 months at the Supamonks studio in Paris under there SupaResidence program.

Loïc Bramoullé: “While writing the script, I was mostly inspired by my studies of documentaries and articles on geo-strategic clandestine operations during the cold war, and studies of buddhist philosophies. That is where the grim but peaceful tone of the film comes from.

“So there are these space dragons who reach earth a long time after the collapse of humanity. They are not interested by any of earth’s remaining resources but they are immensely interested by the history of the civilization that appeared here, for the impact that can have on their own philosophies.

“They want to know how humanity appeared, what it discovered, and how it ended. To be able to explore the surface, they’ve been xenoforming the atmosphere, with minimal impact on the biosphere, with immense self building structures made of an alloy mixing earth less exotic mineral, called bauxite, and artificial nano organisms.

Watch the making of:

“Now they are able to breath, the structures are entering a phase of controlled molecular decay, that will leave the earth untouched, as the sanctuary it is for them.

“As they are cold blooded beings, and after evolving free from the reptilian brain, they did not develop death-fearing religions, but rather a bunch of philosophies aiming for the connection of everything, and the decryption of the world.”

Production: Supamonks with the support of SupaRésidence©
Directed by Loïc bramoullé (artstation.com/artist/liok)
Creature design, sculpt, surfacing: Loïc Bramoullé
Rig: Vincent Donaz, Daniel Quintero
Animation: Vincent Donaz, Daniel Quintero, Benoit Vincent, Aurélie Vigneron
Tracking, lighting, rendering: Rachad Meya, Loïc Bramoullé
Color grading, compositing: Vivien Ebran, Loïc Bramoullé
Matte paintings: Loïc bramoullé
Cloth simulation: Caroline Lobato
Particules & flares: Niels Prayer
Making of music: Yoan Turpin: “Try again”, from the album “Rhythm’n’Bits”.
Original music by Thomas Barrandon (soundcloud.com/thomasbarrandon)
Mix & sound design by Resonant Step (resonantstep.com)
Alien voice by Morgan Hammel (morganhamel@gmail.com)