Unit 2.1 Formative Assessment: Project 1
Project Concept
Pollution Carnival is an experimental 3D animation project based on the theme of nuclear wastewater pollution.
This project aims to transform the invisible and hard-to-feel consequences of pollution into an unsettling experience that the audience can directly feel, through a surreal and symbolic carnival world.
An amusement park usually represents joy, innocence, and happy memories. However, in this project, it is slowly invaded by pollution and turns into a strange space that is beautiful on the surface but rotten inside.
Through this strong visual contrast, I want to show the lasting and hidden nature of environmental damage, as well as the cycle in which humans will eventually face the consequences of their own actions.
Symbolic Elements
In this project, I chose several important symbolic elements. Together, they build the visual language of this “polluted carnival.”
1. Carousel
The carousel represents a repeating cycle of cause and effect.
It keeps turning, just as the consequences of pollution do not end immediately, but build up over time and finally return to humanity.
Visually, the carousel still keeps some of the joy of a normal amusement park, but when it slowly becomes distorted, damaged, and swallowed by pollution, this contrast creates a stronger feeling of unease.
2. Clown
The clown represents the happiness on the surface of the carnival, but it also symbolizes human escape, numbness, and self-deception.
A clown is always smiling, performing, and creating joy, yet this joy is exaggerated and false.
In this project, the clown reflects how people still pretend that everything is normal, even when facing environmental crisis, and continue to hide inside short-term entertainment and false calm.
3. Amusement Park
The amusement park itself is the central spatial symbol of the whole project.
It is normally a place connected with childhood memories, happiness, and idealized experiences, but here it becomes a world that is slowly decaying.
I chose the amusement park because it creates a strong contrast with nuclear pollution:
one stands for innocence and joy, while the other stands for damage and loss of control.
This contrast helps to express the hidden crisis beneath a beautiful surface more directly.
4. Mutated Animals
The mutated animals represent the most direct consequence of pollution.
They symbolize the pain and distortion of natural life after the ecological system has been damaged.
Compared with the abstract idea of pollution, mutated animals can create a more immediate emotional response, because they turn an invisible crisis into visible scars.
At the same time, they also suggest that the original pure environment can no longer return to what it once was.
5. Dark Sea
The dark sea represents nuclear pollution itself.
The surface of the sea may still look calm, but underneath, pollution is spreading, settling, and slowly invading everything.
It symbolizes a silent but constant threat.
Compared with the lights and excitement of the carnival, the dark sea feels like the true core of the project, reminding the audience that surface joy can never hide the fact that the environment has already been damaged.
Workflow
This project mainly uses Maya for animation, with Unreal Engine for environment building, lighting, atmosphere, and rendering.
In addition, I will use Rizom UV for UV work, Substance 3D Painter for texturing, and AE for post-production editing.