Alkemy X recently teamed up with FF New York to produce an animated PSA for the marine conservation organization Sea Shepherd.
Entitled 'Stop The Plastic Ocean,' the fully CG-animated piece is a heart-wrenching depiction of how plastic debris traumatically affects our marine wildlife, revealing that every year more than 1 million animals die from these man-made pollutants.
The PSA is built around a series of hypnotic, abstract animations, each of which reveal various marine wildlife trying to break free of a liquid plastic-like substance trapping them. The form of these animals gradually becomes more defined as the spot progresses, before morphing into a lasting image of plastic debris floating in the ocean.
"I firmly believe that emotion is what moves people to action," commented Alkemy X Creative Director Geoff Bailey. "Ultimately, this notion led us to the final concept of the piece, wherein the viewer is lulled into a false sense of security through the motion and imagery before being jolted back into reality."
While the subject matter of the PSA is serious, a point of emphasis in serving the concept was to create beautiful and elegant moving images. Working closely with the FF New York team, the animation and design aesthetic Bailey and his team arrived at is a symbolic expression of plastic debris encroaching on ocean habitats.
"We conducted extensive R&D to create the mercurial look and feel of the material that comprises the stylized ocean world we imagined -- a hybrid of water and plastic," Bailey explained. "Working in Houdini, Maya, Nuke, and After Effects, it was a total exploration getting the motion behaviors of the material and how the sea animals interact with it, while also demonstrating their struggle in a compelling and impactful way."
