OFFF MX Opening Titles
Project
OFFF MX — Opening Titles
For the renowned global festivals of design and innovation, OFFF, a studio or individual artist is invited to design the opening titles and branding for the event. The most exciting piece of the brief was also the most challenging: a blank page for the artist or studio to build a completely custom work with their own voice.
Hornet was selected as the studio to create the OFFF MX 2024 opening titles and branding. As a festival that centers technology, creativity and motion design, Hornet Director Itay Tevel knew they couldn't talk about technology in the creative field without mentioning AI. So he decided that our main titles and branding would revolve around the current relationship– this dance of power dynamics– between human creativity and AI tools.
Published
April 2025
Agency
Hornet
The narrative for the opening titles sequence begins with elements representing humans and AI almost mirroring a parent-child relationship: humans feed AI with information, much like a parent feeds the child food and contextual information about their own world, their reality, and their psychology.
The child ends up looking a lot like the parent in many ways, but as AI grows, it starts to learn and develop its own ideas. As in many relationships, tension arises. They portrayed this visually as both the human and AI start to restrict each other and take more and more space in the frame.
The tension keeps building until it snaps and chaos erupts. This chaos represents the struggle for control and the need for balance. From that moment forward humans and AI understand that they have to co-exist hand in hand, which leads us to the symbiotic scenes.
These half AI- half human shapes became the visual branding for the event.
Soft bodies and warm colors were used to represent humans. For AI, hard materials and cooler colors like blues and silvers represented logic, precision and technological.
To create a dynamic, engaging, and inspiring film to kick off the festival, the team built a world of complex and beautiful 3D elements combined with 2D graphics, since the narrative required creating objects that represent the human hand as well as technological AI tools, they used soft bodies and warm colors to represent humans, emphasizing their warmth, creativity, and emotional depth. For AI, hard materials and cooler colors like blues and silvers represent logic, precision, and technological advancement.
“Since this story follows AI we thought it’s imperative to combine AI in our process.”
The team began by animating 2D shapes, while simultaneously designing realistic 3D style frames. Then they moved the keyframes from After Effects into C4D and connected the layers to our 3D shapes. They also created simulations that they then animated in After Effects to make it feel more intentional.
Since this story follows AI they thought it’s imperative to combine AI in our process. For some of the 3D elements they trained AI on our own models and designs and let it generate more images. They selected the images they liked, put it into an AI software called AI Instant Mesh, and then they took it back into C4D to refine the model and change the textures and colors by hand. They also asked chatGPT to create some expressions that allowed some of the pixel animation for the titles. A lot of the explorations for this project relied on skilled collaboration using 2 to 6 different softwares working together.
In terms of the production process, the team expanded on some of Itay's prior experiments of converting 2D objects to 3D and integrating AI tools into the process.
They began by animating in 2D, while simultaneously creating realistic 3D style frames. They trained AI on our own models and designs and let it generate more images. They selected the images They liked put it into an AI software called AI Instant Mesh, and then they took it back into C4D to refine the model and change the textures and colors by hand. They also asked chatGPT to create some expressions that allowed some of the pixel animation for the titles.
Director
Itay Tevel
Executive Producer
Cathy Kwan
Senior Producer
Justine Webster
Sound Company
Editor
Minseok Kim
2D Design Lead
Kyuri Kim
3D Design Lead
Anil Rinat
Motion Lead
Thiago Steka
Concept Exploration
Jeroen Krielaars
Storyboard Artist
Josh Edwards
Motion Designer
Seongjin Yoon
Amalia Lage
Joanne Jian
Kelsey Robinson
Erico Santana
CG Generalist
Dor Sagiv
Daniel Whitaker
Nachei Sanchez
Production Coordinator
Ryann Rezza
Talent Coordinator
Deanna Rivera
Matt Harvey
Managing Partner
Hana Shimizu
Director of Production
Karen Lawler
Head of Creative Development
Kristin Labriola
Head of Production
Dez Stavracos
