Hyperreal Surrealism in 3D Everyday objects get weird in unexpected ways in The Shrewd Awakening.
There's a material crispness to Peter Tomaszewicz's work that makes you want to reach out and touch the parade of ever-changing objects and elements in his animated films. From surprising architectural transformations in States of Matter to fabric forms in Silent Aesthetics and textile feathering in the BBC2 Sharp - Ident, hyperreal elements typify his personal and commercial work. Add surreal narratives to the mix, and the result is a collection of playful thought experiments in which meticulously rendered materials, textures and forms evolve, transmute and metamorphosize.
His recent animated film, The Shrewd Awakening, is a vibrant celebration of this hyperreal surrealist style. It is also a creative collaboration between Peter Tomaszewicz and Christiana Perdiou, who has a background in fashion design and an interest in textiles and 2D collage. Made using Cinema 4D, Houdini and Redshift, the film is a playful visual exploration of impossible relationships and connections and they describe it as hyperreal surrealism because "that's exactly what we are doing in transforming real objects into weird and unexpected forms with fascinating behaviors," he explains. "That's what we are both interested in, and Cinema 4D allowed us to realize that visually.
A Shared Creative Sensibility
Tomaszewicz's journey to this creative style began at University of the Arts London where he studied graphic and digital media design before moving on to music and sound design. Eventually, he gravitated toward motion graphics. "What really helped me was that technology had moved on since my studies," he recalls. "When I discovered Cinema 4D, I was surprised by how easy it was compared to other software I'd tried."
He quickly established himself as a designer and art director doing freelance gigs with acclaimed creative agencies and studios. But he was restless for creative freedom and ultimately set out to be an artist in his own right. “I always wanted to evolve and find new challenges, and most of the work I do is inspired by a combination of all the things I like and enjoy, sculpture, art, graphic design, photography – whatever catches my eye,” he says.
Perdiou shares a similar creative sensibility. With a degree in fashion design, and a career in fashion PR and sales, her passion for textile design has led to a continual experimentation with patterns, colors and geometry, mostly in 2D collage form. Excited by Cinema 4D’s ability to add a third dimension to her work, Perdiou has collaborated with Tomaszewicz on several projects, including Trapped Summer, a commentary on the use of plastics made humorous by elements added by Perdiou.
"I met Peter a few years ago and he introduced me to motion graphics," she recalls. "I could see how my flat collages could come alive through motion design, which was really exciting. Since then, he's encouraged me to get more involved in my interests in art, painting and sculpture." When they work on art films together, they usually start by thinking up a concept and creating mood boards showing what they want to see in the film alongside final color palettes and textures. Inspiration most often comes from articles they're read online, documentaries, social media - or a new artist they've discovered.
"Then we take the objects we found inspirational and use them in ways that are not their real purpose, which is why we call it hyperreal surrealism," Tomaszewicz explains. Always interested in getting his hands on new software updates for C4D and Houdini, he challenges himself to think up and develop surreal stories, sometimes challenging the purpose of a tool to see what else he could do with it.
Next, both in their own time, they come up with some ideas to turn into 2D collages; with Peter sometimes going straight into 3D. Once they've realized a few ideas, they lay them all out next to each other and develop them further to finalize the storyline. Piece by piece it comes together as Tomaszewicz works on the final 3D scenes and Perdiou returns to finish the colours and textures.
A Visual Feast
The film’s concept was driven by their desire to create something that was “totally free and unlimited,” Tomaszewicz says. The idea was to use everyday objects to create a playful narrative with humoristic elements and visual impact that allows viewers to come up with their own meaning. Perdiou started by creating style frames in Photoshop while Tomaszewicz made quick mockups directly in Cinema 4D. When finished, they compared the two and found that they were on the same page with their collage aesthetic and compositional style.
Since the goal was not to demonstrate 3D or modelling prowess, models for each element in a scene were either built by Tomaszewicz in Cinema 4D, or purchased on Quixel, Turbo Squid or other online sources. That allowed the duo more time to create the interesting visual compositions. “The individual style frames don’t offer an obvious narrative and there’s no character or storyline,” he explains. “It’s really about leading the eye from A to B using motion design.”
Once they had the general designs, colors and textures, they thought about how to connect the elements, make them look and feel like they belonged together and create dynamic compositions that worked in the edit. That strategy gave the film a strong visual coherence while allowing it to also be the “visual feast” the artists intended it to be. “It was a lot about what looked and felt right,” he says, explaining that creating something in that way was a bit like arranging random objects in a gallery to see what looks right in the space.
To give the animations a natural, playful feel Tomaszewicz used C4D’s alembic integration, which allowed him to easily retime and fine tune animation speed. For the film’s shoe and spaghetti scenes, for example, he used Houdini to create shoelace simulations and imported the alembic files into Cinema 4D. Next, he added the simulations to the rest of the elements in the composition before finalising and animating the whole scene.
Following the success of The Shrewd Awakening, Tomaszewicz and Perdiou have continued to collaborate and have recently released a film called The New Sleek. An exploration of architectural spaces and interior design, it also reflects their interest in hyperreal surrealistic movement. They like that these art projects not only help them develop their skills, they also challenge them to creatively tackle complex ideas and come up with narratives that are outside the norm. “Without excluding any individual opportunities that we both may have separately,” Tomaszewicz says, “we are also looking into expanding our reach as a creative hub into the industry.
