Synchronicity is an entirely computer-generated ballet and allegory. “It’s a story about growing up,” says director Hans Uhlig. “The two dancers are born, and as their consciousness dawns they become aware of each other. Their initial reaction is apprehension and fear, and they fight over their identity like teenagers. Their eventual acceptance of each other causes the shell around them to break apart and they’re bathed in sunlight.”

Synchronicity is also an animated painting. It transitions from the photoreal to the surreal. It begins with an homage to the earliest known films, with art nouveau titles and sepia tones, and as the film and the story progress, a series of stylized film looks underscore the evolution of the characters.

Our intention was to push the envelope. We wanted to create an entirely computer generated short film with photorealistic humans. To make the characters as real and believable as possible, motion capture technology was used. Computer graphics animated by hand has a particular quality. You can see the function curves. You see them ease in and ease out, and you lose the emotion. With motion capture you get all of the subtleties of movement, all of the emotion, for free.

The complex choreography by San Francisco based choreographer Paula Telander was captured using the Vicon 370 optical motion capture system. A ring of seven motion capture cameras and nearly 100 mark-ers were used to capture all of the subtleties of the original performance. Vicon, Filmbox, Softimage, and Industrial Light&Magic proprietary software were used to reconstruct and apply the motion capture data to the computer-generated dancers.

The entirely computer-generated environment was created in Softimage, surfaced with Renderman shaders, lit and composited with ILM proprietary software, and ultimately demolished using a Maya rigid body simulation.

The film also has an original score by William Storkson and a 5.1 Dolby SR/D sound mix, courtesy of Skywalker Sound.