How Erwin van den IJssel created infinite patterns for Playgrounds
Nexus Studios director Erwin van Den IJssel shares how he blended animation, typography and improvised jazz to create a frenetic title sequence celebrating the diverse talent at Playground's 2025 In Motion festival, held at the Barbican in London.
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What was the brief like from Playgrounds for this year’s title sequence? Were there any themes or rules to stick to?
Amazingly, the brief was completely open. Playgrounds only sent a list of speaker names. Still, having worked with them before and knowing how many different artists they champion and how diverse their community is, I knew early on I wanted the sequence to be a celebration of craft: bringing together lots of ideas, styles and techniques to represent the Playgrounds experience.
The music notation, the chainlink fence, the 3D rocks; each of them have that same ‘order to chaos’ feel.
Credits
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- Production Company Nexus Studios/USA
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Credits
View on- Production Company Nexus Studios/USA
- Designer Melanie Climent
- Sound Design Rabble Post
- Sound Designer Bertus Pelser
- Sound Designer Randall MacDonald
- Creative Director Erwin van Den Ijssel
- Designer Erwin van Den Ijssel
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Credits
powered by- Production Company Nexus Studios/USA
- Designer Melanie Climent
- Sound Design Rabble Post
- Sound Designer Bertus Pelser
- Sound Designer Randall MacDonald
- Creative Director Erwin van Den Ijssel
- Designer Erwin van Den Ijssel
Where did you find inspiration for each scene – is there a common thread running through them all?
Once settled on the idea of a black and white infinite zoom, slowly coloured in by the titles, I tried to find as many recognisable black and white patterns as possible. A lot of these start graphic and structured but end in a more organic place – the music notation, the chainlink fence, the 3D rocks; each of them have that same ‘order to chaos’ feel.
Each shot is designed to, on the one hand, feel like it continues the journey seamlessly, while on the other hand suddenly immersing the viewer in a completely different world.
How many different types of animation are involved, and what was the creative process like to bring them all together?
It ranges from cel animation to 3D animation and everything in between: from purely typographic scenes to character-driven shots. To me, it’s all just motion design really! Bringing them together was all about balancing contrast and connection: each shot is designed to, on the one hand, feel like it continues the journey seamlessly, while on the other hand suddenly immersing the viewer in a completely different world.
Bertus and Randall brought real instrumentalists into the studio to improvise to the animation.
The music plays a key role in setting the pace of the film, did the animation or soundtrack come first?
The music and sound design were created by Bertus Pelser and Randall Willekes Macdonald at Rabble Studios. Our collaboration was very organic – we spoke early on, before any animation, so by the time we made the animatic we already had a rough version of the track to work with. Later, Bertus and Randall brought real instrumentalists into the studio to improvise to the animation. It all came together beautifully – a great example of what happens when sound is part of the process from the very beginning.
I wanted the sequence to feel almost a little improvisational, to be all about inspiration and ideas without too much editing or overthinking.
What were the key challenges and highlights?
Working on this in between commercial projects meant having to be flexible; sometimes having to find different executions for shots depending on the availability of the team. It’s challenging, but that’s also the fun of it! I wanted the sequence to feel almost a little improvisational, to be all about inspiration and ideas without too much editing or overthinking. Having to figure it out on the go definitely helped maintain that quality – even if it gets a bit stressful sometimes with the event coming nearer!
I wanted everything to be ‘just the right amount of overwhelming’, which did come with an element of killing your darlings.
Do you have a favourite part?
For me it’s always the details no one will ever pick up on – in one scene there’s a guy running after his dog somewhere, which I absolutely love, or some of the dancing desktop icons. I wanted everything to be ‘just the right amount of overwhelming’, which did come with an element of killing your darlings. I felt bad featuring beautiful work by artists only for just a couple of frames, but I hope it invites people to watch again!
