Brussels-based director/designer Fabian Aerts continues his CG motion experiments with a metaphorical short film called Reef that looks at the balance between life and death in nature.

Fabian Aerts: “Reef is above all an ode to nature and the wonders that surround it. Its beauty lies in its complexity, its fragility, and its ephemerality.


“I have always been fascinated by nature, it inspires me every day with its extraordinary shapes, magnificent textures, glorious color palettes, and infinite patterns. Nature can teach us many lessons, but one of the most important is: Things change. Nothing is permanent. Seasons come and go. Plants bloom and fall to seed.

‘Nature is in essence full of life, but therefore necessarily also punctuated by death. The challenge was to make these two states coexist and show how one and the other could blend harmoniously.

“Death is an integral part of life. It is inevitable, and when it occurs, it is often the source of new lives. Some living beings benefit from death as food or even as a habitat. This is how the cycle of life continues. Death is not an end in itself, it is just a stage, a change of state, a rebirth.”
 

 
Director/animator: Fabian Aerts