Optics / Art film

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Optics is an experimental art film by Maxim Zhestkov exploring the behavior of artificial light and color in digital environments. Blending architectural gallery space with computer-generated digital glass sculptures, we encounter animated refractions, chromatic aberrations, colourful reflection and other conditions which are impossible in reality. A series of tests and explorations guides us through different optical conditions of the bright and colorful digital universe.

The film was initiated as an experimental series of tests in Zhestkov.Studio. After some research, we realized that the beauty and visual power of these explorations could be transformed into an art film rather than be a series of tests. For a couple of months, programmers and artists at Zhestkov.Studio developed different approaches and played with the infinite possibilities of refractions and reflections. We developed over 1000 tools and principles of working with light and refractive/reflective surfaces. Coders wrote dozens of lines in Python to achieve some of the effects and behaviors of light.

In the end, we produced some truly amazing results. Light and refraction in reality can behave only in one way in one condition, but in the digital world, where we don't have real-world restrictions, we can animate every condition and step further into the understanding of light and color.