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This week, we are exploring the amazing work of Platige Image, creators of the hauntingly beautiful “Artyom’s Nightmare” animated short.
The “Making Of” documentary shows how the team thought about Artyom’s story, leaving the tunnels and looking for hope on the surface while everyone else believes there is nothing there to be found.
We asked for your questions for the team behind it all at Platige Image, check out their insight below!
The shrine is a place where people of Metro pay tribute to their loved ones who passed away. It's basically an underground cemetery. The doll was one of the totems left by the boy and his family. When Artyom enters the tunnels, he hears the doll falling down on the ground. It reminds him the time when he tried to save the boy and the family. So the whole encounter is a dream, a vision, a visual retrospective. But please don't reveal it to anyone who hasn't watched the trailer yet!
Such was the concept to transform the way of thinking about traumatic events in the real scenes. We took advantage of flashbacks and prophecies, of the past and the future, in order to show what happened and what could've happened differently.
Each doll has its unique metaphorical design which represents different vision. You need to look at them carefully to notice all of them. And the general symbolism is like layer-cake, made of thoughts, of past events, of trauma. Basically it is about how life, step by step, day by day, gets under your skin creating something like the rings of a tree
This is the baby Artyom and Anna never had. Artyom risks his life searching for signals on the surface, but the stakes are much, much higher - his marriage and his family. The world beyond the underground is heavily radiated and spending a lot of time there results in Artyom practically glowing in the night. It has further consequences as well – it creates conflict with Anna's father and with Anna herself. Such a vision is Artyom's remorse of this aspect of his life.
He is one of thousands of boys who died because of war, radiation or mutants. And his family is one of a thousand of families who died because of the same reasons. This boy and this family, specific or not, are the ones Artyom couldn't have saved. Or maybe it's Artyom himself? Let's leave it to the power of audience’s imagination.
It took six months from writing the script to the final delivery created by a team of almost hundred artists, producers and technicians.
Probably the Aurora scene, as the dynamic action scenes are usually the hardest ones to pull together.
Thank you so much to Platige for answering all of the questions, and thank you to you, Rangers, for asking them!
The characters in the short bring Artyom’s story to life, from the boy in the tunnels, the bandits on the train and the Master of the Forest hurtling towards a vulnerable family he is ultimately unable to save. The detail is incredible and the pain, fear and determination is etched onto Artyom’s face as the feelings rush through him. Check out the living being models from the animation here.
Check out the stunning concept art for the short animation, provided by Platige Image, for key scenes in the story, including that baby in the gas mask!