HP Innovation Issue 18: Summer 2021 | Page 50

he Living System is a

T mesmerizing twominute short film that maps out a surrealist , psychedelic journey inspired by nature — where microscopic organisms zip through primordial seas , rainbow-hued crystals sprout from a Marslike rocky desert , wispy clouds coalesce into a lone tree , and an urban neighborhood becomes a tropical jungle as it joyfully explodes with flowering plants .

Seven animators , designers , and graphic artists — the Z by HP Global Ambassadors — found a way to collaborate from a distance and create this digital masterpiece while they were very far apart in their home studios in New York , Portugal , the Netherlands , Colombia , California , and Idaho . They used a range of new software , new workflows , and devices like the HP ZBook Create Notebook PC , HP DreamColor Studio Displays , and the HP Z4 Desktop , and also depended on collaboration tools we have all come to know : Zoom calls that spanned several time zones , WeChats , and file-sharing sites .
What followed was a relaystyle creative endeavor over four months , with each artist handing off their work to the next and figuring out natural points of transition between their individual pieces . They achieved something collaborative , beautiful , and wholly unique — truly greater than the sum of its parts .
— SARAH MURRY
1 NIDIA DIAS 3D DESIGNER & ART DIRECTOR PORTO , PORTUGAL
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“ I had this idea of changing perspectives on nature ; I was actually looking into point clouds [ a set of data points in space ]. So , I said , ‘ Hey , Jody [ MacDonald ], I think you and I should work together because whatever you film , I can try putting that into 3D .’ She ended up finding this lone tree . It was perfect .”
BRADLEY “ GMUNK ” MUNKOWITZ
DIGITAL ARTIST & DIRECTOR BERKELEY , CALIFORNIA
“ I did this fluid simulation system that just shows all these molecules becoming flow . And then that transitioned into another element of nature , which is air . Living in the Bay Area , there ’ s a lot of fog . I wanted to go out and shoot a time lapse of fog moving over these , like , infrared hills and canyons . It still felt very elemental and kind of not fully resolved .”
ALEX TROCHUT
EXPERIMENTAL TYPEFACE DESIGNER & ILLUSTRATOR NEW YORK , NEW YORK
“ Creating in VR as an experience is super fun because you are able to just have complete control over the scale of whatever you ’ re building . And it feels very natural . I feel like it ’ s nice to see a tool that ’ s trying to get closer to a human rather than make the human get closer to a machine .”
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