Undersea is a project created for the Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens Projection Dome. The project was meant to invoke the feeling of slowly sinking into tranquil waters. Created by Kaden Duncan-Matis.

For this project, students were tasked with creating a 1-minute immersive visual piece intended for projection within the dome at Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens. Successful work invokes a single sense or sensation, creating a visceral experience for viewers.

How It Was Achieved

The project was created primarily through Blender, with additional effects added via Adobe After Effects. To achieve the effect of slowly sinking into the water, the animation took place underneath a surface using Blender’s Ocean modifier to create the wave-like distortions, as well as a cube with a volumetric shader to emulate the water. The fish themselves were animated using keyframes and Blender’s Displacement modifier in combination with a noise texture. Finally, in order to simulate the curvature of the projection dome, a fisheye lens was simulated. Once this was all done, the entire animation was rendered using Blender’s Cycles rendering engine.

With the animation created, I then imported the animation into Adobe After Effects. Using After Effects’ built-in particle and wave simulation systems, I created the splash effect, as well as the bubbles that occur any time the viewer is sinking. After Effects allowed me to simulate these effects in three-dimensional space as well as use keyframes to modulate the intensity as well as the color of these effects over the course of the animation. Finally, the project was brought together by adding royalty-free audio found from across the internet using sources like Pixabay and Freesound, with some added audio distortion to truly emulate the experience of being underwater.