Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 Posted by Jim Thacker

Eye candy: Lux Aeterna

The phrase Lux Aeterna (‘Eternal light’) comes with musical and cinematic associations, being the title of a key theme from the soundtracks of both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Requiem for a Dream.

Spanish animator Cristóbal Vila’s latest short, also titled Lux Aeterna, doesn’t make use of either – but it is in a similar vein, musically and artistically speaking.

A journey of light
Vila describes the short as “a journey of light, from distant galaxies to small drops of water”.

If you’ve seen The Third & The Seventh, you’ll recognise the general territory we’re in, but with more of an emphasis on the natural world, and less on the man-made.

Created in modo, Cinema 4D and After Effects, the photorealistic three-minute short brings together disparate images evoking light: cosmological, organic, architectural and scientific.

Vila has posted a brief explanation of the imagery on his website, and says he hopes to record a series of video tutorials explaining how the short itself was made – although in the short term, in Spanish only.

If you liked Lux Aeterna, it’s also worth checking out Vila’s other animations, particularly Snakes, which brings an Escher woodcut to life, and which screened at Siggraph donkey’s years ago. Simple, but lovely.

Read more about Lux Aeterna on Cristóbal Vila’s website