Motion Design: The Operculists of Argyle Square

Who are the Operculists of Argyle Square? And can they avoid too much time drain-spotting to combat the strange forces that are gathering in the darkest corners of London?

This is a title sequence I created for an imagined TV show, The Operculists of Argyle Square. The storyline follows a secret society of operculists (those who enjoy documenting drain covers) that operate in a hidden network beneath London's streets. Occult secret agents called SWARTs, city-wide pirate broadcasts of a ominous being known as The Hypno-Skull and talking assassin crows are only some of the odd characters and situations that populate this supernatural, sci-fi comedy.

For both the visuals and sound my touch point was many of the supernatural British TV shows of the 1970s like Sapphire and Steel, The Changes and Quatermass as well as the sonic output of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I created a basic premise for a TV show, then storyboarded out a short title sequence for the beginning of the show.

I created this title sequence in the production tool, Blender. Leveraging Blender's video editor to animate and edit the sequence, I used this exercise as an entry point to learning the tool. I created animations using collage techniques, combined with live action footage and 2D animation. This was also the first time I had created a piece of music specifically for an animated or video sequence. I wanted the music to reinforce the visuals, adding an ominous weight to the overall presntation.