Working with a tiny but mighty animation team, Stink director Saad Moosajee imagines a suffocating world punctuated by glimpses of dance for Grammy-nominated French singer-songwriter (and fellow director) Woodkid.

Saad Moosajee: “Our vision for the film was to have an environment that felt alive, so much so that it became a character in the film. To achieve this, we created over 100 unique lava and smoke simulations using tools by Thomas Marque and James Bartolozzi.

“Our intention was to create something deeply personal that could communicate the feeling of being swallowed by the world around you. About trying to breathe in a place where no one and nothing can breathe anymore. The idea of a volcanic mass filled with lava and machinery was central to this – to show creative and destructive forces present within nature and technology.
 

“The film took over a year to finish and was primarily created in Houdini and used Unreal Engine live choreography recorded with motion capture and keyframe animation.”

 
“We approached the VFX for this music video through the lens of an animated feature film workflow, developing custom production tools and software to visualize such a unique story and landscape.

“The film took over a year to finish and was primarily created in Houdini and used Unreal Engine live choreography recorded with motion capture and keyframe animation.

“The team consisted of only three full-time production artists including lead animator Daniel Callaby and technical director James Bartolozzi, who developed a suite of bespoke production tools that made it possible for our small team of artists to do all of the visual effects work.”

Woodkid (aka Yoann Lemoine): “This song was inspired by the films made in the golden age of 90’s Japanese animation – Akira and Ghost in The Shell. I wrote ‘Reactor’ for the Suginami Junior Chorus (Japan), and we recorded the piece in 2020 in Tokyo. It is an homage to minimalist music and to the Japanese anime that was part of my culture when I was younger.”
 

 

Artist: Woodkid

Production: Stink Films
Director: Saad Moosajee
Executive Producer: Helene Segol, Melodie Saba
Producer: Reef Oldberg
Line Producer: Clementine Tatin
Technical Director: James Bartolozzi
Rigging TD: Lee Wolland
Lead Animator: Daniel Callaby
Animator: Paul Lavau
Lead Designer: Saad Moosajee
Designer: Chanyu Chen, Zuheng Yin
3D modeler: Mike Altman
Asset Modeler: JD Garner
Substance Painter: Pierre Judge
Houdini development: Thomas Marque
Storyboard Artist: Ming Wang, Bihan Liao

Motion Capture: Silverspoon
Dance/Choreography: Maya Man
Supporting Dancer: Zhoutong Qi

Special Thanks: Sam Mason, Andrew Herzog, Sam Davis, Connor Bailey