‘Flesh Nest’ By Andrew Thomas Huang

“A nine-part sci-fi video series illustrating a post-apocalyptic digital multiverse.”

Film by Andrew Thomas Huang, 2018. Support his work on Patreon.

Director’s comments (via Nowness):

Flesh Nest is essentially my sci-fi Fraggle Rock-inspired trash opera. As a filmmaker who works frequently with visual effects, I’m often thinking about the art of world-building and the rules one lays out to abide by or break in order to make that world succeed. I built this project around the concept of a digital afterlife. While we are often accustomed to seeing the internet portrayed as vector graphics, data visualization, or other sterile imagery like server rooms, I wanted instead to construct visual imagery that had the same efficiency and mythic vastness as a Medieval painting. When you look at the paintings of Bosch or Bruegel, who were inspired by the artwork of the Middle Ages, there are so many characters and spaces building up and crumbling down; with everything inhabiting a single scrolling tapestry-like space.

This project is very different for me: unlike my other VFX-heavy work, it remains deconstructed for viewers. Rather than spending lots of time to polish the FX and remove all the seams, it was important for me that there is an honesty about the artifice of this universe. This deconstructed approach involved having a bit of fun with the typical Hollywood visual effects workflow and exposing the process while we’re at it. Actors shot on blue-screen in rubber suits crawl in front of film equipment left in the frame. Motion captured avatars retain the glitches inherent from the imperfections of the capture process.

Key credits
Director: Andrew Thomas Huang
Cinematographer: Shadi Chabaan
Production designer: Robert Brecko
Costume designer: Ashley Eva Brock
Choreographer: Nina McNeely
Featuring: Leo Morimune, Luz Remigio
Motion capture dancers: Kenzie McClure, Ryan Spencer
Make-up and hair: Ashlyn McIntyre
Sound and music: Andrew Thomas Huang
Visual effects: Andrew Thomas Huang
CG modelers: Andrew Thomas Huang, Mo Bensasi
Rotoscope artists: Cecilia Sweet-Coll, Dyan Jong
3D tracking, mocap editing, layout: Cecilia Sweet-Coll
Motion capture system: Perception Neuron by Noitom