"Au Soleil (To The Sun)"

April 3, 2010 12:48 AM

"Au Soleil" is based on my memories of a cycling trip I undertook across Eastern Europe from Berlin to Istanbul. Vimeo video. A (surprisingly relaxing) short multimedia documentary, created using open source 3D animation software and a keen artistic eye.

The film took me 4 months from initial concept through modelling, rigging, texturing, animation, rendering, compositing, editing and sound design. Most of the animation was produced using blender, and was quite a learning experience: at the start I had no idea what an IK constraint was or how to use the NLA editor, my previous animation experience being mostly limited to boring old arch-viz.

Pretty incredible work for an amateur!

posted by circular (7 comments total)

And the cycle ride was for charity!
posted by djgh at 5:05 AM on April 3, 2010

That was excellent and unexpected. The way he chose to end it somehow reminded me of Waltz With Bashir.
posted by Flashman at 6:31 AM on April 3, 2010

Awesome. One of the better and unique online travel journals.
posted by stbalbach at 7:55 AM on April 3, 2010

Thanks so much for this post. (Here comes the cliched response ... but I mean it! Really!) Reminds me of two things I'd so much like to do before the end of ... : 1) European bike trip; 2) Make a film.
posted by kneecapped at 10:22 AM on April 3, 2010

I mentally substituted the voiceover with the voice of Werner Herzog and that made it a lot more awesome.
posted by signalnine at 3:10 PM on April 3, 2010

Lovely movie, but sounds like a terrible way to travel unless you are doing it for charity. As a wise person, perhaps here on Mefi, once said "Europe is not a checklist."

For those thinking of going to Central and Eastern Europe, I recommend taking the train and spending more than a day in the beautiful and historic places you visit. Of course the Hungarian Plains were boring to a person wooshing past on a cycle. Their charm is in the unique local culture. They should have stopped and had some sour cherries with chestnut puree. Delicious.
posted by melissam at 4:35 PM on April 3, 2010

The name and title screen format are taken directly from the the (excellent) movie Sans Soleil, which is also a sort of poetic travel journal. It has, unsurprisingly, a fair bit of stylistic overlap with this video (though it uses live footage instead of 3-D renderings), so those who liked this might want to check it out.

(My apologies if this was an obvious reference.)
posted by caaaaaam at 11:04 AM on April 4, 2010