Nasstronaut

Title: Catalyst
Format: Anamorphic Illusion Animation
Tools: Cinema4D, Redshift, After Effects
Role: Animator / Designer
Timeline: Started in '24, abandoned, and finally wrapped in '26.

I originally started this project while working on the projection art show for the Scranton Fringe Festival at the Everhart Museum back in 2024.

This project was a deep dive into mathematically-driven motion design. I started out trying to write my own formulas, but once I realized I’d never hit my deadline at that pace, I pivoted.

I ended up leaning on ChatGPT to feed me these wild formulas. Half the time I didn’t have a clue what the equations would actually do, but that was part of the fun—it became this "AI-assisted" experiment where the hard work was all about the time, effort, and curation. Honestly? I went a little bananas with it. I was using a massive mix of formula splines, effectors, cloners, and symmetry tools.

Once the pressure of a deadline was off, I had a blast just playing with new techniques. The animation starts with a simple cube, morphs through 8 different scenes, and loops back to that original "room" cube 4 different times. It was incredibly involved and time-consuming, but I learned a ton.

I’m not sure if I’ll put myself through this again anytime soon... but never say never.

Cinema4D tools that were the backbone of this project:

* Cloner tool
* Symmetry tool
* Formula Spline tool
* Extrude Tool
* Plain Effector
* Fields tool
* Formula Effector
* Delay Effector
* Displacer
* FFD/Lattice tool
* Bend Deformer
* Taper Deformer
* Spline Wrap tool
* Volume Builder
* Volume Mesher
* Subdivision Surface tool
* Voronoi Fracture tool
* Connect Object tool
* Current State to Object
* Correction Deformer
* Pose Morpher
* MoSpline tool