The crew at Aixsponza in Munich show off their collective skills for surreality in this startling full-CG in-house project called “Seed,” a hyper-detailed trip deep into photoscanning territory.

Aixsponza lead 3D/VFX super, Matthias Zabiegly: “We wanted to create something for the fun of it and keep it as wide open as possible – while not going completely random and ridiculous.

“Technical challenges were the implementation of a heavy duty photoscanning pipeline into our workflow. Basically every surface in the animation (except a few poly-modelled ones) are photoscanned.

“This is also the first time we went for mostly GPU rendering using Octane and we needed a heavy update on hardware. A lot of shots in the animation also consist of at least a few simulated bits and pieces which also but quite some strain on our VFX department.

“There were a total of 14 people working on the project on and off – so not really that much and quite a small team compared to what the “big” studios can do man power wise. All in all this was quite a challenge on workflow and pipeline and the studio developed some whole new ways of working in the process.”

Watch the making of:

Concept & Direction: Manuel Casasola Merkle, Elisabeth Schlichtner, Moritz Schwind, Ingo Walde
Composer / Sound Design: Michael Fakesch 3d Artists: Leonhard Akinbiyi, Manuel Casasola Merkle, Marcel Dolschon, Simon Fiedler, Michael Haupt, Ava Kalf, Jens Kindler, Lars Korb, Moritz Schwind, Achim August Tietz, Ingo Walde, Fuat Yüksel, Matthias Zabiegly People Photogrammetry: Gotoxy AV Media – Sven Fiebinger, Frank Zwick
Actresses: Barbara Casasola Merkle, Denise Matthey, Victoria Voss
Makeup Artist: Eileen Richter
Catering: Anja Sobawa
Production Baby: Luzi Casasola Merkle