How artist Pierre Magnol (Bright Photon) made an otherworldly video for CCTemple.

Pierre Magnol, aka Bright Photon, has been creating lush, complex animations for over two decades as a pioneering motion designer in the early 2000s. Always evolving his style and discovering new tools, he never stops looking beyond the horizon for the next cool thing.

One of his many clients, I.O.T. Records, reached out recently for help with a CCTemple music video, and Magnol worked his stylistic magic. Leaning heavily on Maxon One along with World Builder, the video invites us the viewers to go along on a journey of discovery.

We talked with Magnol about the video, his career, and the desire to keep his process simple. Here’s what he had to say.

Tell us about yourself and your career.

Magnol: I honed my skills in editing before delving into the then-emerging world of interactive design and early animated graphics. Eventually, I transitioned into freelancing, specializing in design and 3D production after discovering After Effects and Cinema 4D. Over my 25 years in the industry, I’ve worked under the names Kurtzmedias, Gkaster, and finally Bright Photon (BPhoton).

How did this film come about, and what narrative does it convey?

Magnol: I started my collaboration with I.O.T. Records a few years ago, handling the music videos for a few of their artists. They always allow me creative freedom in guiding the design and story, and for this CCTemple video, we decided it would be the story of a pilot who sets off alone in search of an exotic planet.

Finding a balance between the fear of change and the fascination of what awaits us, the journey is poetic and melancholy, and the pilot is amazed and intrigued by what he finds. The landscape is filled with organic fauna, creatures, and hybrid beings made of flesh and plants in perfect symbiosis with their environment.

The main goal was to create familiar frames with something strange inside, with shots long enough so that the eye has time to scan the image to find the singularity.

Walk us through your creative process and share some technical details.

Magnol: I have used many of the Maxon One tools since their creation and have closely followed their constant evolution. I do not take technological approach to my work and enjoy the artist-friendly UIs that allow me to just play with and combine tools and presets, often discovering cool things by accident and building on them.

I particularly appreciate the Red Giant tools that allow independent artists like me the ability to create cinematic looks for my projects. Using tools like optical diffusion and halation in Magic Bullet Looks and VFX’s Real Lens Flares, I can get really amazing looks quickly.

Apart from the creation of the scenery assets made in World Creator, the world was primarily built in Cinema 4D. I like to limit myself to a few tools, feeling it allows me to create a coherence in a project. For this project, I choose to focus on C4D’s cloth and Volume Builder tools, which allow you to create practically anything and imagine truly original shapes without being a sculpting or modeling pro.

Talk about working alone and some of the challenges with this project.

Magnol: I almost always work alone, but as I am not a modeler, I sometimes collaborate with another great C4D artist, Corentin Seguin de Broin, when I need complex objects.

But, for this film I did everything myself and found the length of the shots to be very challenging. I needed to lower some of my expectations and significantly optimize each scene in order to get manageable render times.

Do you prefer larger or smaller projects?

Magnol: I approach all projects with the same attitude, feeling that any new experience is a positive challenge. Of course, the most exciting projects are those where you are asked to design, create, and put all your knowledge to use. Oftentimes, though, commercial jobs don’t work that way. As artists we need carve out time for personal or collaborative projects that let our brains drift.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers?

Magnol: I encourage all artists to invest time in creative personal projects. It’s helpful to work on personal expression, experiment with new forms of narration, and choose a simple combination of tools to carry out these projects.

“Creativity is born of constraint and focusing on accomplishing your vision with a few tools forces unexpected discoveries.”
Pierre Magnol

Creativity is born of constraint and focusing on accomplishing your vision with a few tools forces unexpected discoveries. Even as a film director working on natural landscapes, I have a habit of limiting myself to two focal lengths and allowing that choice to help me concentrate on working within those bounds.