How I Translated Alice into Parametric Motion Graphics
Deconstructing Wonderland: Alice in Wonderland | Visual art project 2020
EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
Deconstructing Wonderland: Motion Graphics, Parametric Forms, and the Garden of Live Flowers
When I set out to reframe Lewis Carroll’s Garden of Live Flowers from Through the Looking-Glass, I kept coming back to one central issue: standard character animation always feels a bit too literal for surrealism. It flattens the dream logic. I didn't want a traditional narrative with recognizable figures walking through a painted background. I wanted something that felt more like topography—where geometry, rhythm, and plant life bleed into the exact same mathematical structure.
That was the starting point for The one where Alice sings with the Flowers.
Reimagining Form as Topographic Shapes
Instead of drawing clean silhouettes or applying standard digital painting, I built Alice and the surrounding flowers as horizontal contour slices. If you work with 3D software like Rhino or Grasshopper, the aesthetic will feel instantly familiar. It looks like parametric terrain modeling or a topographic map brought to life in a dark, empty space. The horizontal lines aren't just decorative line work—they function as light emitters against an absolute black void. When the forms start moving, they don't walk or sway like typical animated figures. They ripple. They pulse like sound waves moving across terrain. I wanted to bridge the gap between computational design and organic life, showing that a human body, a blooming tulip, and a caterpillar share the exact same underlying geometry when you strip away the surface detail.
Alice herself is built around stark, luminous white striations. She acts as the anchor in the frame. Surrounding her, the botanical forms bloom and morph through warm, heavy gradients—deep ambers, rich crimsons, golds, and muted violets. Because all the light radiates directly from inside these line cuts rather than an external light source, the color feels less like paint and more like glowing wire work or heat maps in a dark room.
]The visual rhythm is tied directly to an arrangement of "Golden Afternoon." Every visual shift—from the initial white contours of Alice to the blooming petals, the caterpillar, and the eventual butterfly forms—is keyed into the audio track. The haunting, reverberating vocals give the digital forms an eerie, almost sacred presence. Ultimately, this project was an experiment in reduction. By taking away facial expressions, solid textures, and conventional backgrounds, you're left with pure form and sound—an ethereal motion study where architectural geometry and classic fantasy sit in the exact same frame.
The one where Alice sings with the Flowers | Alice in Wonderland | Visual art project 2020
