Sometimes, we get the chance to work on something truly meaningful, and this project was one of those moments for me.
I was approached by the wonderful team at WestWind Pictures to help bring to life the story of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, a man whose life was a shining example of character, devotion, humility, and above all service to others.
The animated sections were created for "Exemplar", a documentary commissioned by The Universal House of Justice.
I've put together this "Animator’s Cut" of the animated sequences I created for this project. If you'd like to see the full documentary, you can find it here.
I am immensely honored to have been part of this project, I hope you enjoy it.
Crafting Exemplar
The film had several animated sections, with the opening one being the most complex. It was key to setting up the whole story, introducing 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the world he grew up in. We needed to show who he was and give a sense of the time and place he came from, all while keeping it engaging for the audience.
To explain some of the more complex ideas, we used visual metaphors that helped make the concepts easier to understand. In the animatic, you can see how the story started to come together. Actually, a lot of what we first laid out in this early version ended up in the final film, showing just how important the animatic was in shaping both the story and the look of the film.
Creating a Painterly Look
We wanted the film to feel like every frame was painted by an artist, but we didn’t want the effect to be too overwhelming. So, I came up with a process to make that happen.
Most of the animation was done in 3D, and then we picked certain frames to digitally paint, giving each still the artistic look we were after. After that, we used AI to fill in the gaps and complete the rest of the frames.
This project was created back in 2020, and while that wasn’t too long ago, AI tools weren’t as advanced as they are now. Even so, the process we used allowed us to achieve the exact look we were going for.
Individually painted "Keyframes" for the Mount Carmel Scene
Individually painted "Keyframes" for the house of Baha'u'lláh Scene
