Flock Hill Content Suite
The focus and approach of the animation for Flock Hill Station was inspired by the rugged and vast landscape of the Canterbury high country. Much like the architectural intent of the proposed design, this animated piece seeks to be innately connected to place.
The scale of the location feels intimate and immense in the same moment; the silence broken by the wind caught in the pines, by a thunderstorm sweeping a distant hillside - the weather remains close at hand. Plains of tussock move rhythmically in the breeze as it shifts across the landscape, sweeping to meet the mountains that envelop this place. The canvas of sky above is painterly, an ever-changing palette of violence and placidity. Within sits a home reduced to elements linked to site and place. The limestone walls recall the nearby flock of rock formations to form spaces for a family to live. Above these floats the emblematic timber roof of the New Zealand rural and cultural landscape - sheds and workshops that dot the land here return in a dramatic echo.
Much like in the real world, the built is in service to site - it seeks to recede within it, to shift focus back to context. We are given hints at the form and scale of the home, as it sits ever-beyond our full comprehension. As the interior spaces are unfurled, we see the welcoming reminders of domesticity - a crackling fire, the promise of a meal with family, a safe haven from the full intensity of site, but one that does not seek to shy from it. The scale of the mountain ranges that stretch to the distant horizon are revealed from beyond the roof - a final demonstration of the power and raw beauty of context, and a reminder of our place within it.
The approach in delivering this piece was to storyboard using sketches and then develop an animated storyboard using Twinmotion which allowed us to quickly test out ideas, timing and audio. The final scenes were then delivered using 3ds Max, VRay and Corona. The landscape was created using stock models, GrowFX , Forest Pack, Railclone, and Megascans. The scenes were composited in Adobe After Effects and the final video was edited and graded in Premiere Pro.
Warren and Mahoney's visualisation team created the renders and animation for this project. The animation was shortlisted at the 2019 World Architecture Festival Awards.
