Google New Ways To Search

New plants to identify. New care tips to learn. New ways to search in the new Google app.
On this project I was lucky to work with Creative Lab NY on crafting the animations of these three ads.

On The Drum.
On AdWeek.

hallhoucinations

It appears that my brain functions in a way that leads me to obsess over certain things and turn them into addictions. As a solution, I have decided to embark on a fresh 100-day project. This time, after experiencing several unsuccessful attempts over the past 7 years, I am challenging myself to produce a brief animation utilizing Houdini and Redshift on a daily basis. I am not striving for anything elaborate or excessive, but rather aiming to improve through repeated practice.

And after 100 days, introducing “hallhoucinations”: A Journey of 100 Abstract Animations in 100 Days

Dive into a mesmerizing world of abstract imagery and animations brought to life through the dynamic combination of Houdini and the powerful Redshift render engine. “hallhoucinations” is a visionary project that pushes the boundaries of creativity and showcases the immense potential of these cutting-edge tools.

Prepare to be transported into a world where imagination knows no bounds, where abstract forms dance and morph, and where visual hallucinations become vivid reality. Welcome to “hallhoucinations.”

Below you can click on the static images to reveal the corresponding video.

Hacking Google

The work of Google’s security teams mostly happens behind closed doors — whether that be intercepting government backed cyber attacks, or taking on the job of hacking Google to strengthen our defenses. But today, we’re taking you behind the scenes with HACKING GOOGLE, a new six-part docuseries featuring the elite security teams that keep more people safe online than anyone else in the world.

Watch the full series on youtube.

As a member of the in-house team at Creative Lab NYC, I was thrilled to work on episode 002 of the series, where I played a crucial role in developing and creating the cyberviz shots. Utilizing my expertise in cutting-edge software like Houdini 18.5, Cinema4D, and Redshift, I was able to voxelize the flames, creating visually stunning and impactful animations that truly bring the episode to life.

Don’t miss the chance to immerse yourself in the world of Google’s security teams and to witness the behind-the-scenes work that goes into keeping the internet a safer place. You can watch the full series on YouTube and see the incredible work of the security teams, including my contributions, firsthand.

EP000: Operation Aurora

EP001: Threat Analysis Group

EP002: Detection and Response

EP003: Red Team

EP004: Bug Hunters

EP005: Project Zero

Don’t Be Afraid

starting.

In March 2020, the whole world stopped. We locked ourselves in our homes and tried to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.
We had many worries and difficult moments. As parents, we also experienced a new relationship with our children. We feared for their health, not knowing that they were the ones keeping us alive and safe.
Sophie Lewis wrote a wonderful poem about this feeling.
She approached me and asked if I would be interested in making a film out of it.
Pierre Buttin was our first choice of illustrator to work with. He created a wonderful set of characters and monsters as well as a complete storyboard.

crafting.

Nicola Destefanis began developing the look of the characters and the entire film. We speculated about using a Risograph look, but struggled to make sense of it. The bold lines and simple shapes seemed stronger to us.
He modeled and rigged the 3D characters and also started blocking some of the animation.

hitting a wall.

After the initial quick push, we hit a wall, when we had our first full film done, with rough animations. The film resulted ubiquitous and not clear in the delivery. Most and foremost, the whole world was changing and as much the virus was evolving during the pandemic, the relationships between us in the same drastic ways. A surge of no vax, no mask, no lockdown movement proved to be the real enemy in what we were trying to say.
We had to rethink and be clearer in our narrative and of course in the visuals as well.

a new script.

As we had less and less time to work on this project, and fewer and fewer people involved, we often thought of abandoning it altogether. Our lives had already been overtaken by a second wave and some health problems were the cherry on top of the cake we had baked ourselves.
But with a new script and a new, probably simpler visual approach using both 3D and 2D techniques to tell this complex but important story, we felt like we were back on track. We had to “just do it.”
It took us another 9 months to get to a good stage.

delivering.

With a third revision of the script, which began at the start of the pandemic crisis, we wanted this film to be set in the moment of delivery. We wanted to talk about how it’s okay to be afraid of the uncertain times and how the ones we are supposed to be protecting are the ones keeping us moving forward, keeping us sane and strong.
For the past 9 months I have been working on the 3D alone, trying to salvage as much as I can from the beautiful animations Nicola Destefanis made in April 2020. I have learned the hard way how to work in Adobe Animate and create frame by frame hand drawn animations. These are certainly not perfect, but I liked the overall rough look of them. And how they integrated with the 3D.
A faint texture added a little something extra to it.

The music is Gaia by Marcus Grimm, courtesy by La Valigetta.

credits.

Gasta, 3d animations and 2d animations, direction
Sophie Lewis, script, voice over
Pierre Buttin, illustrations
Nicola Destefanis, 3d characters model, rig and animations
Rebecca Smith, sound design (Platform Post)
Marcus Grimm, music composer
La Valigetta, music label

press.

Featured on Wired Italia.
Featured on Art Tribune.

Monsters and their buddies GIF series

Ongoing series of hand drawn gifs done in Procreate.
You can search and find the gifs as transparent stickers on instagram and whatsapp if you search for @gasta in the gif search.
On sale on Rarible.

Camera Switches

Camera Switches is a new Android accessibility feature that can help people with speech and motor impairments navigate their phones using eye movements and facial gestures, customised to their range of movement. Find out more at https://g.co/cameraswitches

On this project I created the 3d Pixel 5 phone and its animations.
Done in C4D, rendered in Redshift.

Google Earth Timelapse

27 million satellite images from the past 37 years, 2 million hours of rendering done inside Google’s carbon neutral data centers, the new Google Earth Timelapse features time as the 4th dimension to explore our planet.

Done entirely at Creative Lab London, I was responsible of setting the correct pipeline between Google Earth Studio, enabled with experimental features and After Effects.
I then animated 3d cameras in Google Earth Studio, rendering on multiple machines, 4k imagery that has been then used for the first time in January at Davos 2020 on the main led screen, which used a 2:1 ratio and a 4k resolution.
I also delivered assets for other screens in Davos, one huge video that was looping between the three main ones and more clips used by scientists.

The project received a huge media coverage and it’s still going strong on Youtube and magazines.

WebXR Experiments

A collection of experiences made with WebXR, which brings together AR and VR on the web to make them more convenient and widely accessible.
We’re featuring some of our own projects here and encourage everyone to grow the collection and push the boundaries of what’s possible with WebXR.

I worked on some of the 3d transitions, intro and endframe, where I created a 3d Pixel 5 phone with some 3d light effects.
I also did some beauty work on the footage, to replace a sky.

Look to Speak

Look to Speak is an Android app from ‘Experiments with Google‘ which enables people who have language and motor impairments to use their eyes to select pre-written phrases and have them spoken aloud. Keyword Post.

I made the tutorial (in app and youtube), some gifs for the media comms pack and some clean ups on the main film.

Sodar

A website to help Chrome users understand social distancing, by using WebXR to visualise 2m in the space around them.
I helped the team develop the visual language used in the experiment and created the social assets.

Teach From Home

I created the motion visual identity of Teach from Home, a hub of information and tools to help teachers to teach from home during the CV-19 crisis.

Starling Bank at Sibos

10 animations, starting from Starling Bank logo, with a strong narrative in each of them.
5 pattern animations using the Starling elements, constantly moving.

Movement of birds (Starlings) - fast, agile, supportive, inventive, strong.

Movement with purpose, getting from A to B effortlessly. Starling Bank enables investments and effortless capital movement.

Starling at the centre of an ecosystem, supporting people and businesses.

Playing with particles and trails to visualise the complexity of the data delivered at the speed of light by Starling Bank.

Components to create a whole. Starling Bank has in itself multiple components, independent modules that work together below the surface. We want to show in an abstract and minimal way the Marketplace.

Plug n' Play. Starling is capable to enable partners and businesses in a seamless environment.

Metamorphosis. Just a tap, a flick of our fingers and Starling will adapt to our needs.

Control and freedom. Under the surface, connections are regulated by Starling, leaving the businesses freedom to move.

Impact with elegance. The ripple effect that Starling Bank has on every business, customer and relationship.

Disrupt traditional banking system. The traditional banking system is often, for both private and business clients, a maze. Starling Bank is here to disrupt it completely.

Do you like puppies?

Character explorations and extreme cuteness

Biore UV

Looping animations done in collaboration with GIF Magazine.

Cinema4d + Redshift

Google Pixel 2 @ Selfridges Flipside

Your Luxury Portrait is a visual installation created by Google Creative Lab, showcasing the low light capabilities of the Google Pixel 2. With mirrors and lenses that mimic the Google Pixel 2 camera, Your Luxury Portrait invites the audience to create a personal representation of their own luxury.

Working with the Google Creative Lab team, I’ve been responsible of envisioning and delivering the animation for the window display at Selfridges, on Oxford Street.
Using some pictures shot on Pixel 2, I played extensively with expressions in order to build an organic animation that would link to the actual installation.

Google Draw to art

Draw to art is another incredible installation made by Google Creative Lab.
Using machine learning, you can draw a simple sketch to search through thousands of artworks and see what comes up.

On this project I used Houdini to visualise the actual distribution of the 122000 features in the 3d space.
Using a simple setup, I imported the coordinates (generated in python) and applied the relevant artwork texture to each plane.
I then used After Effects to explain how the program works.

Re-Cycle

What if your waste would transform into money?
A fun little project to promote a new recycling campaign in Australia.

credits.

Agency: fivebyfive Sidney
ECD: Craig Bailey
3D and animation: gasta

Marcus Grimm – Wild

Follow the light.
A new world awaits.

Wild is the debut single from the instrumental artist Marcus Grimm.
Recorded in the suggestive Teatro delle Voci in Treviso and mastered at the Abbey Road studios in London.
The video, a journey into a dreamy world fully created in CGI, is directed and animated by Gasta, awarded London-based visual artist.

Done in C4D, Arnold, After Effects.

Premiered on Our Culture Mag.

Credits.

Direction / 3D / compositing: gasta
Artist: Marcus Grimm
Label: La Valigetta

3d models from Sketchfab

Dive in – An illustrated tale

awards.

Vimeo Staff Pick
Featured on Creativepool
Official selection at Festival Motion Design, Nevers, France.
Official selection at A/perture Cinema, On and on, St. Winston Salem, NC, USA.
Official selection at Athens Digital Arts Festival 2019 Extending Realities, Greece.
Official selection at ANIMA, Córdoba International Animation Festival, Vitória, Brazil

Laa dee daaa

b345713 b0`/z

A Band

GSG5s: Playgrounds

5 seconds looping animation for Greyscale Gorilla 5 seconds projects contest, April 2018. Theme: “Playground“.

After a long winter, the spring is finally here. So, we went to the playground and, well, we weren’t the only ones. A swarm of endless sliding and swinging and screaming kids, all around us!
The only thing we’ve been left to do was to join them. So here we are!

Done in Cinema4d + Arnold with the precious help of alcinoo.
Fully looping!

Music: Gingerlys – Playgrounds live at WFMU (Creative Common 0)

awards.

Winner of Greyscale Gorilla 5s Project.
Featured on Creativepool.

Waymo 360 Experience

With Google Creative Lab, I had the chance to work on this incredible 360 video for Waymo.
Working with the creative leads, I helped them envision the look of the graphic overlays, translating not just in a simple and effective way how the Waymo technologies work, but also trying to be as much accurate as possible.

I also created the logo animation and a wide range of assets, used for press and internal use.