Other Spring - O.S. & H.A.Z.E.
H.A.Z.E.
/heiz/
Hyper Anomalous Zone of Ephemerality
OTHER SPRING is a research essay, a virtual world, and a short film. The project is inspired by an ancient Chinese fable THE TALE OF THE PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING about a fisherman accidentally venturing into a mysterious peach blossom spring that is surrounded by a thick fog.
OS critically investigates the societal implications of computational mediation, automation, and AI. Drawing from ZZYW's research paper Computational Haze, the project comprises a virtual world and a short film exploring the potential of ‘heretical computing’ (based on a lecture by Alexander R. Galloway, 2020) to challenge the monolithic idea of efficiency and precision that characterizes our contemporary information society.
Full film at the VH Award Archive: https://artlab.hyundai.com/editorial/watch/the-5th-vh-award-zzyw-other-spring
CREDITS:
Created by: ZZYW(Yang Wang & Zhenzhen Qi)
Creative Producer: Matthew J.X. Doyle
UE5 Technical Environment Artist: Cecil Boey
Worldmaking Architect: Mehrdad Ranjbar
Research Architect: Junling Zhuang
Film Editor/Graphic Designer: Qinru Zhang
Music Composer: Maxwell Sterling
I created a shader to apply Vertex painting in UE5 to create masks for different material layers: the base layer is the mountain rock - waterfall, river, and pound bed - steep rocks - grass and moss.
Texture images sourced from Megasan library.
Set dress with foliage, trees, props, and lighting.
Foliages and trees sourced from Megascan library.
I created a Volumetric Iridescent Fog shader that wraps and moves along the surfaces of objects. There are 3 core components to the shader:
1. SDF displacement for the volume.
2. 3D noises to create variations with depth.
3. Iridescent properties.
The volumetric shader uses DistanceToNearestSurface node to retrieve the SDF of the interacting objects. Then a value is added on top of the surface of the object to displace the volumetric fog.
Water bubbles and vortex VFX using Niagara and underwater post-processing layer.
Animated Fog Card with looping procedural noise.
The HAZE Emitters.
Custom-made Subsurface Scattering material with 3D depth, iridescence, and organic noise in UE5 material editor.
Waterfall SDF plane that procedurally wraps to the shape of the terrain.
Custom waterfall material with digital styling and effects.