El Vacío (The Void) · Stop-Motion & 3D Integration
Cinematic integration of a physical stop-motion puppet into 3D underwater CGI environments using Blender Cycles in collaboration with Fractal.
Fractal · Productora Audiovisual
01 / Overview
«El Vacío» (The Void) is a cinematic piece produced in close collaboration with audiovisual studio Fractal, marrying the physical craft of traditional stop-motion puppetry with 3D CGI environments in Blender. The story follows an old man's descent into an oceanic abyss, integrating green-screen footage plates onto 3D projection cards in Cycles to achieve realistic floor reflections, volumetric light beams, and refractive caustics.
02 / The Challenge
The primary technical challenge was uniting two disparate worlds: a physical articulated puppet filmed on a green-screen stage by Fractal and a procedural 3D underwater environment in Blender Cycles. This demanded suppressing green light spill around the puppet contours, matching analog camera grain, and ensuring both the abyss descent and seabed resting phase naturally interacted with caustics and volumetric light shafts.
03 / The Solution
We engineered a 3D camera projection card workflow in Blender Cycles. The alpha-keyed footage sequence was projected onto geometry cards with calibrated diffuse and emissive shaders to catch real-time shadows and ocean water refractions. We split the pipeline into two core narrative acts: the old man's abyss freefall amidst suspended marine sediment and light shafts, and the awakening on the reflective seabed. A multi-pass color grading and Cycles denoiser harmonized the entire piece.
04 / Key Deliverables
- ✦Technical VFX direction and co-production with Fractal studio
- ✦Stop-Motion / CGI integration pipeline with 3D projection cards
- ✦Abyss freefall simulation with underwater marine sediment particles
- ✦Volumetric underwater light shafts and procedural ocean caustics
- ✦Green screen compositing, edge despill, and color harmonizing
- ✦High-definition keyframe and sequence mastering
05 / Impact & Metrics
Fractal · Productora Audiovisual
Co-Production & Stop-Motion PuppetryCinematic production developed in joint collaboration with Fractal. Fractal led physical traditional puppet design, costuming, and live-action green-screen stage filming. LANDRES directed VFX integration, 3D card projections, ocean fluid simulations, and volumetric lighting in Blender 5.2 Cycles.
Cinematic Sequence · Awakening in the Abyss
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