Project
Personal project, 100%
Period
Oct 2022-Dec 2022
Services
3D Modeling
Motion Graphics
Tools
Cinema 4D
Octane
X-Particles
After Effects
Element
To Structure
Strap from Light
Iridescent panels move across the frame, fold along one axis, and resolve into the rubber strap. A custom Octane shader connects the strap language to the Sapphire Crystal case through the same dispersion logic.
Process · 01
Body Assembles
Liquid enters first. Screws and second-hand geometry drive X-Particles emitters, then flocking and orbital constraints pull each part toward the case until the body resolves.
Process · 02
Watch Settles
The body and strap meet. A black cloth drops over the assembled watch through a slowed C4D Cloth simulation, then the final frame holds on the Big Bang Sapphire Crystal. The hardest issue was flicker inside the transparent layers, solved by returning to the model and offsetting each internal layer by a small distance.
Process · 03
Particle Residue
After the body resolves, the same X-Particles system scatters outward as a final atmospheric trace. The frame stays still so the transparent case and inner mechanism remain readable; motion is limited to the particle cloud.
Process · 04
Featured by Insydium
Two particle scenes were featured on Insydium's official Instagram, the company behind X-Particles. The response confirmed that the simulation work could stand on its own, not only as support for the film.
What changed.
Early previz kept the six-week schedule intact. Because S01 to S03 were set before modeling, the pacing stayed consistent even while I was learning X-Particles, shader work, and render optimization.
Each tool followed a scene problem: X-Particles for the orbital body assembly, a custom Octane iridescent shader for the strap and sapphire case, and slowed C4D Cloth for the closing drape. The hardest part was the transparent case, where refraction and reflection raised render time and made denoising part of every frame.
The bottleneck was the render queue. Next time, a distributed render setup gets built in week one, not improvised near delivery.
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DOOMED
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Sydney Hong
Seoul, South Korea
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