Art of the Title
Animation Challenge
CHALLENGE
To create a movie title reveal for an upcoming theatrical film, that will also be used for trailers in the theater, online, and on TV.
Theatrical Release designed for 2.40:1 aspect ratio for the theater.
16:9 HD format for home streaming.
AUDIENCE
Each movie will have its own target demographic.
Ages of 35-90 older audience.
The Last Symphony
Sony Pictures, Drama, (2026)
Synopsis: Famed composer Leonard Weiss is diagnosed with a terminal illness just as he begins work on his final symphony. Determined to leave a lasting legacy, Leonard isolates himself in his remote countryside home to pour his soul into the composition. As he struggles with his deteriorating health and haunting memories, he reconnects with estranged family members and old friends. Through these reconnections, Leonard finds peace and inspiration, culminating in a triumphant and emotionally charged final performance.
IDEALIZATION
After reading the film’s story, found it moving and captivating I started writing down some ideas and visualizing in my head what the title reveal should be.
I concluded that the title reveal should symbolize the composer and his story throughout the reveal.
Proposed Directions
CONCEPT 1:
This approach is to symbolize the film’s story and the character’s goal and illness. Inspired by the opening titles of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the intro to the TV series, “Westworld.” With ensemble closeups of the composer’s piano surrounded by pill tablets and reading glasses, with a music sheet on top writing the music by a heart rate waveform forming musical notes the music as the piano is playing, revealing the title at the end.
CONCEPT 2:
The reconstruction of the piano keys symbolizes the re-connections and redemption the main character goes through in the story, finding peace and inspiration. Starting with a single lone key, with the rest of the keys coming together to form the entire piano keys.
Ultimately, it was decided to combine the second half of both concepts together.
Music
From the beginning, I knew that the music would be a key part of the film’s story and the title reveal. I wanted the audience to feel a special connection to the music as you’re listening to the composer’s final legacy piece.
This beautiful music track was made in collaboration with audio engineer and designer, Kelly Warner.
The recordings of Kelly playing the layers of music for the symphony was also used as a reference for the animation process!
MODELING & Animation Process
The piano and its keys were all modeled and animated in Cinema 4D, with camera movement, then textured & rendered in Redshift.
The writing of the title reveal and heart rate waveform forming the musical notes on a music sheet was done in Adobe After Effects and later used an animated texture for the sheet on top. Much of the final look was done in post by adding depth of fields to the rendered footage in Nuke and color grading.
I built a single piano key using a box modeling technique, then added a subdivision surface and displacement textures for the black and white keys to make a realistic piano key. Repeated the same process for the other keys, then used the cloner object tool to clone as many keys for the piano placement.
A reconstruction of the 3D model of the piano used in the title reveal, made in Cinema 4D.
The animated texture used for the 3D animation, features the writing of the title reveal, and the heart rate waveform forming the musical notes on the sheet syncing to the music. I used Melody Scanner to generate the audio into actual sheet music used for accuracy when designing, I designed the sheet music for the animation in Adobe Illustrator and then animated it in Adobe After Effects.
After creating the animation in C4D, I rendered the shots as a OpenEXR files and placed it in Nuke adding depth of field. To give certain objects in the shots better focus and give it a realistic camera shots. As you see in the final.
Animation Passes
FIRST PASS:
Originally, this animatic focused on the piano keys alone with a music sheet floating on top in a dark navy blue background, as it played in the storyboards. The feedback I received is that there’s too many shots and different camera moves. Use a different typography. Needed depth of field focus and add more elements than just the keyboards.
SECOND PASS:
I went back remodeled the piano keys and added more elements to make it look more like a realistically accurate piano. While referencing a real life piano. As well as adding the music sheet with heart rate music beat animated texture. Simply reanimating the camera movements. Then I took the first shot footage into Nuke and added the depth of field to it.
THIRD PASS:
The animation and design needed refinement. The second shot needs to match-cut from the first shot, and the second shot’s camera movement needs to be reanimated for better timing and a tighter closeup on the music sheet from panning up. Cut from the piano keys to a close-up of the sheet. The music sheet with the title reveal needed to be reworked.
FOURTH PASS:
The cut and pacing from the second to the third shot weakened the second shot and didn’t have the same effect or depth as the first shot. It was too quick I re-animated the second shot’s camera movement to make it more settled and extended the length. As well as refixing the depth of field.
FINAL ANIMATION
24:1 aspect ratio (Scope) for Theater Release
16:9 HD format for Home Streaming