Last Whispers

Last Whispers a piece on dying languages originated as an essay on language extinction and over time evolved into an immersive oratorio. I had the opportunity to translate the piece into its next phase, and help create the volumetric experience. We initially started working on the project as test to see what the VR version of the oratorio would feel like. Early on as I started the rough prototype I became immediately fascinated by the work that Lena and her team had done for the oratorio. The more I digged into how the piece was assembled I could see the passion that had gone into bringing the piece to its current form.
Project
Roles
Tools
Last Whispers
2019 (7mins), 2021 (30mins)
Animator
Engineer
Modeler
Previsualization
Material Artist
Technical Direction
VFX
After Effects
Maya
Photoshop
Substance Painter
Unreal Engine 4
Black and white image of a dense cosmic nebula with swirling clouds and scattered stars.Close-up view of concentric tree rings with light streaks across the image, resembling a woodcut pattern.Glowing white lines form a flowing wave pattern with a dark map of Asia in the background highlighting India and the Ahom Language region.Aerial view of a calm dark river with two white birds swimming and reflections of leafless tree branches on the water surface.Surreal black and white landscape with leafless twisted trees and a textured, undulating ground.Dark, tangled forest with many leafless branches and rough textured ground under a black sky.Black and white abstract image showing a network of fine, web-like structures surrounded by swirling mist or fog.Black and white digital map with illuminated network of roads and bright clustered points of light on the right side.

Process

Previs

In order to complete the project in a timely manner it was important to quickly materialize ideas in the headset before going deep into production. More often than not the simpler ideas were the most effective at conveying the desired feeling.
Abstract black and white digital landscape with glowing horizontal lines resembling waves and floating scattered characters in the air.

Bringing to Life

Using elements from the 2D audiovisual version of Last Whispers, one of the main challenges was figuring out how to bring those flat elements into a more immersive, surrounding space. For the Ahom language, the lyrics seemed to rise from the earth all around us, while a figure delivered a chant of safe passage, assuring the lost souls that the war had come to an end.

360 Output

While the experience was built to run in real-time we wanted to make sure that the work would be able to playback at the desired fidelity on standalone headsets, Planetariums, and Domes. In order to maintain visual integrity across all platforms we created a master 360 render in 8K at 60 FPS with the intent of optimizing the footage for the desired device.
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Jonathan Yomayuza