Sun Girl is a music video commissioned by musician Julia Holter for her single "Sun Girl", released on the record label Domino Records. Julia approached me with the idea about a song that that reflects on rejecting what is good for you in exchange for what is comfortable, in this case a story about a girl that avoids the sun despite its benefits. Julia at the time was also a recent mother and expressed the interest in creating a music video dedicated to her daughter, Simone. Running with these ideas, I decided to make a film with the logline "A character is struggling to escape the sun. Every time they catch a glimpse of the sun, they dream."
A major aspect of this project is the use of AI. The surreal plant 3D models are based off of images produced by Midjourney, then modeled in Maya, and textured in Substance Painter. The character animation uses a mix of hand animation and premade animations from Mixamo and effects were made in Houdini.
Images were generated by Midjourney and used as references for 3D modeling
Early rough beat board
Character design was inspired by a Fernand Léger painting
Main character model is rigged by Mixamo
Coral growth was procedurally modeled in Houdini with the help of Harry Chen