DIFFUSION – Why don’t humans have patterned texture like animals?

 

This is one of those rare pieces of motion design where concept, lighting, texturing and animation are all perfectly aligned.

Kouhei Nakama has created with this sublime piece, two minutes of visual beauty that you will remember long after you’ve seen it.

Kouhei created the work in the now defunct Softimage software after encountering the mathematical formulas of Reaction-Diffusion Systems. These systems can be seen frequently in nature in the patterning of plants, insects and animals. Kouhei then asked the question what if humans could generate these types of patterns and what would they look like?

Here’s what Kouhei had to say about the process of creating the piece:

“I didn’t use any photographs or any hand-drawn illustration in the video at all on purpose. Patterns and the skin texture were generated by programming and the human model was made not by using 3D human body scanning but by completely using a computer. I demonstrated the theme “to artificially modify the human bodies” by following the rules. In the video, you’ll see human beings having DNA transferred from other natural organisms such as luminescent coral and a shell absorbing metal into its body. In the end, I explored the possibility further and humans formed a colony of individuals, which represents the end of individuals. To what extent will we transform ourselves? Then what will be the definition of human beings?”

Check out Kouhei’s other work at his website.