MAGIC FLUIDS
MAGIC FLUIDS focuses on the development of traditional fluid art and color pouring methods for video on the macro scale. The challenge for me was to minimize randomness and to really get control over the fluids in terms of form, speed and direction. I ran R&D for a few month and poured several hundred sheets of paper with paint to finally get a handful of stable methods. This is a very clean style with an almost graphic CG-look, but all properties of real organic visuals. Almost all effects you see in this video were created in camera. The only thing I added in post was lightning on a few shots.
The most important thing for me was to create a practical effect where a color appears from nothing on a totally black canvas and expands to all sides. To achieve this, I made use of a layering technique by stacking paints with different densities and blend them with a flow release medium. Over time, the lower layer breaches the upper layer and starts to float on top. You cannot tell exactly where the top layer will breach, but you have a few seconds to reframe as you see the bottom layer shimmering through.
Another issue I wanted to solve for years was color separation when using marbling techniques. To get clean separation and fast motion at the same time, I worked out a method with printer refill inks and a set of different base mediums to mix each color with. You can see the results in the second part of MAGIC FLUIDS.
Finally, the colors. I decided to limit myself to cyan, magenta and yellow and to get rid of any glitter and metallic this time. In the first part of the video, the edit shuffles back an forth between mono-chromatic and multi-colored scenes several times, because I wanted to establish all the 3 primaries and emphasize their impact when they blend to the full spectrum CMY/RGB. You never can tell to what hue the mixture finally shifts, but I saw pretty much all colors I could think of during these shoots.
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