Silver Movie, Video and Animation Design · 2025
Nomad Animation
- A' Design Award 2025 Silver Winner in Movie, Video and Animation Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Reraner
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 64,956
- Verification code 2624F197BE · Verify this award
About Nomad Animation
Nomad is a science fiction animated short film about the future of the Amazon rainforest. The film shows a moving city that can carry Amazonian tribes to new habitable areas when a location can no longer support human life. The machines in Nomad keep a mechanical structure but are built mainly from natural materials instead of metal. This nature inspired approach avoids the coldness of traditional machinery and gives the city a sense of vitality. Sketches and storyboards were made first, followed by modeling, animation, rendering and compositing. Motion capture was used for the characters.
Yetong Xin and Muwen Li's Nomad Animation invites contemplation of humanity's enduring relationship with mobility, shelter, and the natural world through the visual language of speculative design. This digitally rendered composition positions itself within contemporary traditions of imaginative worldbuilding that trace lineage through nineteenth-century fantastic illustration, early twentieth-century visionary architecture, and the rich heritage of science fiction concept art. The central vessel—an intricate assemblage of latticed panels, geometric armatures, and sweeping angular projections—appears as both sanctuary and vehicle, suggesting nomadic cultures translated into technological poetry. The artists demonstrate exceptional facility with atmospheric rendering, deploying subtle gradations of cerulean and Prussian blue to establish convincing aerial depth while allowing warm mineral tones to anchor the composition in geological authenticity. Particularly accomplished passages include the delicate handling of cloud formations that drift between vessel and terrain, creating measurable spatial intervals while softening the potentially harsh contrast between mechanical structure and organic landscape. The Voronoi-pattern perforations that characterize the vessel's surfaces suggest biological growth principles informing technological design, evoking the biomimetic philosophies increasingly prevalent in contemporary architectural discourse. Thematically, the work appears to meditate upon questions of dwelling and wandering, the tension between rootedness and mobility that characterizes human settlement patterns across millennia. The vessel's position—hovering above rather than rooted within the landscape—proposes alternative relationships between habitation and environment, perhaps gesturing toward more harmonious modes of terrestrial presence. Viewers might consider how the image's visual poetry transforms practical concerns of shelter and movement into occasions for aesthetic contemplation and imaginative expansion.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The mechanical design in the video has a unique style: while it retains a mechanical structure, it primarily uses natural materials instead of metal. Through this nature inspired mechanical approach, the design aims to portray a human city that values nature, reflecting a vision for future cities—harmony between humans and the environment. This design breaks away from the coldness of traditional machinery, giving it a sense of vitality that resonates with the audience and enhances their immersive experience.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- 4K Video. Screened on a large display.
- Tags
- animation, nature, scifi, emotion, future
- Production Technology
- First created design sketches and storyboards in Photoshop, then modeled in Blender. Used Cinema4D for scene building, animation, rendering, and simulations, and finally composited everything in After Effects. The character movements were captured using motion capture technology.
- Design Challenge
- The challenge was how to create a worldview that respects nature in the context of a high tech future. Many futuristic films, such as those with cyberpunk aesthetics, often depict highly mechanized cities, which conflict with the message of nature conservation the project aimed to convey. To address this issue, multiple discussions were held, ultimately leading to the adoption of a biomimetic approach, designing a city that embodies advanced technology while coexisting harmoniously with nature.
- Project Duration
- The project started in September 2023 in MIT Media Lab in Boston and finished in January 2024, and was exhibited in Brooklyn Film Festival, D ARCH Film Festival, A plus D museum in Los Angeles, and METAXIS plus PROMPT Festival in Budapest in 2024.
- Operation Flow
- This animation uses a widescreen cinematic aspect ratio, and the music is highly aesthetic. It is best suited for viewing in a completely dark environment, such as a cinema, with a large screen or projector. The audience will experience an immersive and ultimate audiovisual experience.
- Research
- This project originated from MIT Media Lab's City Science Group research on Amazonian tribes, focusing on the Amazon rainforest's decline due to human activity. Collaborating with scholars and urban designers, the team explored the tribes' beliefs, such as shamanism and totems. Their findings suggest that future Amazonian tribes may continue to respect nature and build cities that harmonize with the environment, shaping the film's worldview and production.
- Inspiration
- This scifi animation short was created in 2023, with a focus on environmental protection. By 2024, due to urban expansion, the forest cover in the eastern Amazon had decreased by 31 percent. This inspired the project to reflect on how humans should coexist harmoniously with nature in the future. The concept envisioned a city capable of moving freely; when a location can no longer sustain human activity, it would transport the Amazonian tribes to new habitable areas, achieving a dynamic balance of natural resources.
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