ADIEL

We were asked to make a mask for the music artist Adiel in 2 weeks. 
I created a headpiece, optimized it for animation, and designed animations that took into account the tight deadlines. Also led and supervised  
the tracking, animation, and compositing by my partner Danylo Sherekin. 

The Mask

I had the opportunity to enjoy interpreting the given sketch as it was the starting point. I relied on tribal, folk oriental, bio and techno trends in jewelry. We had several iterations of changes to the placement and proportions of elements, as well as their materials, so the final look of the mask was a collective effort between the musician, the creative director, and me.

Engineering the Unseen

The challenge was to integrate a complex, evolving digital mask onto a moving face with seamless precision. 
Our role focused on the technical architecture of the piece — bridging the gap between raw tracking data and a polished, organic aesthetic suitable for 4K production.

Markerless Spatial Tracking: To achieve a perfect fit without the aid of physical markers, we engineered a custom tracking solution by treating the human head as a static environment. This allowed for high-fidelity 4K integration that maintains its alignment even through subtle facial shifts.

The Physics of Light: Moving beyond standard shadow-catching, we utilized Blender’s advanced caustic and light-path capabilities to create "chromatic shadows." The blue glints and metallic reflections are not just overlays but are physically calculated to ground the digital entity in the real-world lighting of the scene.

Scalable Geometry Nodes: The mask’s growth — the blossoming of petals and the tension of the chains — was built using a procedural system. By consolidating complex animations into a single master slider, we created a scalable pipeline that allowed for real-time design iterations without the need for frame-by-frame re-animation.

Problem-Solving at Scale: Faced with physics engine limitations on a micro-scale (chain simulations), we re-engineered the scene’s spatial logic, scaling the entire environment by 100x to bypass simulation errors. This ensured that the organic weight and inertia of the ornaments remained fluid and believable.