ABOUT
2000blue creates on the principle of tangible sourcing. In contrast to animation methods relying solely on digital assets or generative processes, our work derives from physical reality. This approach prioritizes performances from actors and physical backgrounds as primary production materials. Our methodology is termed “video concrète.”
The foundational elements are not digitally imagined but originate as concrete, captured reality. Every composition is a collage of raw materials. The process commences with collection. We capture real actors on video — their expressions, gestures, interactions — preserving the performance given by flesh and blood, distinct from motion capture or digital character manipulation.
Settings are similarly derived from the physical world. Backgrounds are photographed, assembled, and treated from original images. This includes employing techniques such as the cyanotype process, yielding tangible artifacts that are subsequently digitized. Each visual component is grounded in paper and ink.
Analogous to the pioneers of musique concrète, the philosophy of production involves the arrangement and manipulation of these concrete elements. Digital tools transform recorded realities into a stylized whole. AI is utilized to preprocess our images and extract data—line, color, and texture. Artificial tools are not used for image generation; AI functions as an editing aid, comparable to a filter applied to a video track. Stylization is done manually.
The final result, after the conventional stages of editing, sound design, and mixing, is intended to be something born directly from the concrete, even in its stylized form. It is composed with recorded sight and performance, much as musique concrète was composed with recorded sound.
The technological optimism near the turn of the millennium promised us an expansion of creativity in collaboration with new digital tools. We work to anchor those hopeful echos to things as real as the sky and sea.