VFX · CGI · Procedural Animation

LED Elevator Art Installation

As lead FX and CGI artist, I created large-format effects and character animation for a five-panel LED elevator installation at St James Quarter.

Client
Fix8Group · St James Quarter

Year
2021

Tools
Houdini · Photoshop · After Effects · Character Creator

The brief

Create a visually surprising sequence of effects for the St James Quarter shopping centre elevator, delivered as production-ready animation assets for Fix8Group.

My role

Lead FX artist and lead CGI artist across wallpaper peeling, glass cracking, blinds, character creation, animation and compositing.

Outcome

Three distinct effects systems delivered as raw Alembic or FBX animation assets, allowing Fix8Group to apply the final textures and rendering for the installation.

01 · Installation

Five LED panels as one moving canvas

Fix8Group develops technical visual experiences for live events, installations and corporate environments. For St James Quarter, the elevator’s five LED wall panels became a continuous surface for animated art.

The design had to account for the unusual vertical format, the physical breaks between panels and the short viewing time of an elevator journey.

02 · Effects system

Wallpaper, breaking glass and animated blinds

The project included three main visual systems: wallpaper peeling away, glass cracking and breaking, and blinds opening to reveal people peeking through.

I built the effects procedurally in Houdini so they could be adjusted to the panel layout and delivered cleanly into the client’s production pipeline.

03 · Characters

Procedural peeking performances

Each blind included different characters and multiple peeking positions. Characters were developed in Character Creator, animated with facial expression and body movement, then transferred into Houdini for the final blinds setup.

The modular system allowed parent, child and other character variations to be combined without rebuilding the full effect.