Hallucii

From the 3D World showreel: One man hits the bottle – and the bottle hits back, in a dark, comic short updating a classic optical illusion for the computer age

Regaining consciousness after a blow to the head from his own beer bottle, a drunken little suit-and-tie greaseball finds himself trapped on an endlessly looping MC Escher–style staircase. A battle of wits ensues as the pie-eyed pencil pusher attempts to escape the visual conundrum, constantly scrutinised by a malevolent CCTV camera. Can he beat the system? Or is it bigger than he’ll ever know?

This is the claustrophobic premise central to animator Goo-Shun Wang’s award-winning 3D animation, Hallucii. It’s both simple and complex, depending which angle you approach it from, and can be appreciated on many levels – a goal the filmmaker set out to achieve. “The idea was that this story could be both easy to understand and thought-provoking,” Wang says. “So you can just enjoy the breakdown of the optical illusion if you like, or take a step back to think about changing your own perspective on life. The overall message is that every dead end could potentially have an exit. Even for a guy trapped in a never-ending staircase.”

SYNOPSIS
Allegorical and impossible architecture makes a prison for a drunk, fat victim of the rat race.

FACT FILE
Duration: 3.45
Budget: None
Production Time: Six months
Software: Photoshop, After Effects and Maya.

SEE ALSO
Dr. Maxwell Merry Christmas (2004) Keytoon
Amfraid (2004) Bertrand, Debeurme, Van De Velde and Verkindt

Click here to download (27MB)