Case Study - Korn

Korn "Start The Healing"

Loma Vista Recordings / Setta Studio

Services

Digital Sculpture

Art Direction

3D Design

Animation

3D/VFX

Summary

Figurative character artwork and digital sculptures interpreting the metaphorical rebirth of heavy music pioneers Korn, promoting the release of Requiem

Challenge

During late-Summer 2021, Director Timothy Saccenti and Producer / Creative Director-extraordinaire Dina Chang (Setta Studio) approached EFFIXX with an opportunity to help re-imagine the aesthetic landscape of heavy music stalwarts Korn — through an album release campaign and music video.

Known for their iconic style, unmistakable presence, and raw live performance, the band had recently signed with boutique indie label Loma Vista Recordings and were looking for a fresh take on visuals for Requiem— an album about "rebirth".

We were more than eager to take part in exploring how the the Korn visual universe could morph and take new shape through a series of future-forward interpretations on the band's mythology.

Approach

For visual effects and 3D sculptures, we were drawn towards elements exploring themes of body horror, entangled flesh, contrasting light/darkness, and abstract futurism; all hallmarks of Timothy Saccenti's approach to artist portraiture. Setta Studio enlisted cinematographer Joshua Zucker Pluda (DEVS / Zola Jesus / Jim Jarmusch) whose modern interpretation of the performance transformed and manipulated the space through unique lensing and optical modifiers.

Ultimately, our greatest challenge was synthesizing live action and CG in a way that took advantage of a modest "white box" set while transporting the viewer into parallel worlds that the performers as well as the digital characters could occupy seamlessly.

Start the Healing:
The Womb

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

The first sculpture to appear in Start the Healing is a nod to the archetypal "doll" head imagery featuring prominently throughout the Korn aesthetic universe. It serves as both a reflection on the band's past mythology and a basis to tear past references down and build them back up again in a modern visual language—the "rebirth".
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Start the Healing:
Metamorphosis

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

Subsequent iterations on the doll head figure illustrate the inner struggle to let the new take over the old and the head is being eaten away at from the inside out, by an emerging parasitic being—a metamorphosis.
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Start the Healing:
Nest of Souls

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

Two sculptures foreshadowing the final hive scene were created using the heads and torsos of the twin characters. Hundreds of instances of the fully-grown doll head figures were warped and bent into an eye-like nest and an infinity tunnel during the transition from the band's performance into the cosmic inner-space environment of the bridge.

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Start the Healing:
Energy Transfer

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

During the song's bridge, we dive into an environment exploring an interaction where one figure sucks the life from another in a parasitic relationship—a metaphor for leaving the old self behind and becoming ones' new self.

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Start the Healing:
Tendrils

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

Throughout Start the Healing, the tendrils became an ongoing motif representing "rebirth" and manifested as a tree-like growth emanating from a tangled hive. Built around the initial "womb" character, the tendrils were developed as a parametric, particle-based rig that were generatively seeded to create a handful of variations on the form.
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Start the Healing:
The Twins

Music Video / VFX / Digital Sculptures

The "twins" make an appearance during the breakdown / bridge in Start the Healing as a maquette fashioned from animal-skin textures and then as a pair of writhing figures that come alive and violently attack one another in a mutually parasitic interplay.
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Early Artwork Concepts

Explorations & Outtakes

Various digital sculptures developed early on in the design phase. These exploration sketches formed the basis of the sculptures featured throughout the "Start The Healing" video.
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The Result

Start The Healing debuted in the top 6 trending videos on YouTube when it premiered on November 10th, 2021. Korn fans were thrilled to learn about the Requiem release date through the first single / music video and it was an overall success for both the band and label.

Credits

Timothy Saccenti

Director

Dina Chang

Producer / Post Supervisor

Setta Studio

Creative Director

Joshua Zucker-Pluda

Cinematographer

Anthony Ciannamea / EFFIXX

3D VFX / Digital Sculptures

Christopher Leckie

Art Director