Sous La Surface - Blender short film

Benjamin Perry explores the life cycle of water and the impact of pollution.

The aim of this short film is to show the journey of a drop of water that starts its journey in a glacier and ends it in the immensity of the ocean. We follow its adventure through the waterways that will enable it to reach its goal, such as rivers, lakes and sewers. An ecological message is present in this film: the further we progress in the story, the more traces of pollution will be present. We start with an image of nature in its purest state, untouched by man, and end with an image of the ocean full of garbage.

The title “Sous la Surface” (“Under the Surface”) is not insignificant; it's obviously part of the lexical field of water that's at the heart of the short film. But it also evokes something hidden or unknown to the world. And this mysterious, unhealthy thing staring back at us from the depths of the ocean is man-made pollution.

This short film is there to make us aware of our impact on a single drop of water, to show us just how much the world is deteriorating through our own fault. It's about time we realized this and took action to stop the disaster.

I created 3d environments based on references from our world to achieve a realistic result. I used different approaches such as fluid simulations and textures to create the main character: water.

As for the sound, I recreated the atmosphere of each scene using royalty-free online sound banks. I also added my personal touch by composing the main music. I wanted something melodic to accompany the beauty of nature, but I also wanted to add a mysterious, dark side to show that behind this nature there's a problem we have to fight against.

So this is what I came up with after 9 months' work.