Honoring a Culture
The Context
The Unjust erasure of a people.
In the first week of January 2024, we were introduced to a collaborative initiative involving many individuals, organizations, and companies. This collective effort led to the creation of a festival dedicated to celebrating Palestinian culture and honoring the lives of Palestinians who were killed before and during the genocide in Gaza.
At a time when Palestinians are continuously dehumanized, silenced, and subjected to violence, the need for community and collective mourning has become even more urgent. This reality is especially felt in the United States, where anti-Palestinian racism is at some of its most severe levels, including by the media and government.
In response, the Falasteen Festival was born. It served as a space for cultural preservation, resistance, and healing for communities affected by this ongoing crisis.
As part of the festival, there was an art gallery and bazaar. Within these spaces, StillFrame 3D Studios, along with several other artists, was invited to create an animated art piece that would both celebrate the people of Gaza and draw attention to their ongoing struggle.
However, a significant challenge quickly became clear: we had less than three weeks to complete the piece. Due to this limited time frame, we were constrained in both the amount of content we could include and the animation techniques we were able to use.
The Concept
Early in the planning process, we and our collaborators decided to use real-time technology commonly found in video game development to create a wall-projected animation. This method is increasingly used in advanced applications such as building projections and large video walls for film and television.
While we didn’t need that level of realism, real-time rendering allowed us to bypass the long processing times of traditional animation. It gave us the flexibility to make changes and see results instantly, which was essential given our time constraints.
Because the animation was stylized, we didn’t require complex lighting or heavy rendering. This made it possible to produce the final piece on a standard laptop.
We chose Unreal Engine for its speed, power, and ability to handle real-time visuals with ease.
StillFrame 3D handled the character modeling, rigging, and animation, while our collaborators created the environments, additional animations, and effects. Inspired by the festival poster, we adopted a painterly style and portrayed the characters as statues. Although many lives could have been honored, To meet the tight deadline, we chose three victims of the Israeli genocide on Gaza who each represented a vital aspect of Palestinian culture now under threat.
- Wael Al-Dahdouh is a respected journalist and a symbol of courage and integrity. Despite losing many friends and family members to murder, he continued his work, risking his life to report the truth. He is the only living figure among the three we chose to honor. In contrast to much of mainstream media, which often distorts or ignores the reality on the ground, Palestinian journalists like Wael embody the true principles of journalism and stand as powerful voices for justice.
- Heba Zagout was a Palestinian painter and artist who not only preserved Palestinian culture but actively created it through her work. Her murder was part of a broader effort to erase Palestinian identity and culture. As artists, we felt it was essential to honor one of our own who gave so much to this cause.
- Refaat Alareer was a world-renowned writer and professor who embodied the best of Palestinian literature, academia, and storytelling. His murder marked the loss of an essential voice in Palestinian literature and education. His poem was featured in the animation, making his inclusion a natural and meaningful tribute.
The Role of StillFrame 3D Studios
Due to the limited time, the artists at StillFrame 3D used video game modeling techniques to efficiently prepare the characters for use in Unreal Engine.
Character Sculpting
We began by sculpting high-polygon models of each character in ZBrush. With limited reference images and no access to 3D scan data, accurately capturing their likenesses was a challenge. All three models had to be completed in under two weeks and and sent to our collaborators for final integration. Aside from a few basic base meshes, the models were created entirely from scratch.
Low Poly Models
Once the sculpts were complete, we created highly optimized models suitable for animation and real-time integration. Each character was retopologized to a very low polygon count, as they would only appear at a distance in the final animation. This approach allowed us to prioritize efficiency without sacrificing the overall visual impact.
Final Models
The final result was a set of fully textured characters designed to appear as statues. Once the animation was completed, the assets were handed off for the final stage of the project.
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Results
Conclusion
In the end, we completed the project just in time for the festival. Given the tight timeline, we are proud of what we were able to achieve. For those of us at StillFrame 3D, it was an honor to contribute to this meaningful work alongside so many talented artists and dedicated organizations.
Credits
Basel Yousef
Character Artist
StillFrame 3D Studios
Temitope Olujobi
3D Artist
The Zhato
Arwa
Graphic Designer
