LEPIDOPTERIST - Main Titles

Lepidopterist is a sci-fi/horror short film directed by Sophia Black for Triskelle Pictures. We were originally brought on to help out with some VFX clean-up, license plate removals, and tracking shots. We thought it was such a cool Kafka-esque film that we pitched a title sequence for it. The image gallery above represents the final storyboards. The final animation can be seen just below this. We used a combination of free stills and footage found on the internet with some After Effects magic (parallax, optics compensation, animated text) as well as some Cinema 4D for the neon main title. Further down are several early style explorations and some false starts. The film was originally titled "Fifty/Fifty" but had to be changed.

Client: Triskelle Pictures Ltd. | Sophie Black
Agency: Attack Studios
Role: Title Designer, Animation, Concepting, Art Direction
Skills: Cinema 4D, After Effects, Photoshop
Additional Credits: Hidden Depths' (Barrie Gledden; Tim Reilly; Jeff Dale) Published by Audio Network;  Didier Descouens, Photography.

Fifty/Fifty - Early Titles Exploration

This one of the projects that our initial instincts were right on the money and were ultimately selected by the client. The macro photography style with textural floaties and organic blurry randomized credits reflected the themes of mystery, transformation and escape. Though we had a blast playing around with some other stylistic ideas.

A collage-style was considered and then discarded right away as soon as we started to research and saw a million titles in the same vein.  Then we went down a folksy illustrated/vintage path. There were some similar books in the film and we thought maybe we'd examine the theme through that lens. Ultimately it was limiting and perhaps too vintage for a sci-fi short. The pendulum then swung the other way and really went for the sci-fi angle and got these models of insects that we rendered out as wireframes and designed around that w/ the green grid. Ironically that direction felt too symbolically and thematically one dimensional. 

Eventually, we were inspired by the paintings of Charlotte Caron.  We approached it in a completely digital in a collage-type manner then used to simulate paint and added in brush strokes, smears, texture, and lighting for the final composite. The jar was rendered out of Cinema 4D and the same FX was applied to stylize. Presented with these choices the director went with the macro/textural route and gave us some refined direction to tune into their color palette. Dreamy pale greens, fleshy orange, and vibrant purples. We ended up doing a few different title designs as well but ended with the final because it best represented the confinement and release. We're excited that it's going to be submitted to online festivals and soon everybody will have the chance to check out this cool and quirky film.

2022 Update - We are delighted to hear that when it was released to festivals that it won 4 awards with a further 8 nominations.