Los Angeles seen through John Sugar’s eyes—a surrealist impression of the streets & neighborhoods that define the city. Like a dream, visuals morph and shift, day to night, blended with Old Hollywood nostalgia and neo-noir storytelling. Our new main title for Sugar, now streaming on Apple TV+.
My roles included animating, compositing, and art directing. Concept and Design by Mason Nicoll.
Sugar | Main Title Sequence
The scenes were crafted in 3D using C4D or using stock footage. Then, we used a specialized plugin to create an oil paint appearance, allowing us precise control over brush size, stroke thickness, direction, etc. Each scene underwent multiple iterations, including passes for fine detail, airbrushed effects, mid strokes, and broad strokes. We then carefully applied and animated masks to dictate areas of visual emphasis, focus, and movement. We employed techniques such as Wide Time and Posterize Time to minimize flickering, while also leveraging it to enhance the intentional painted stop-motion effect we were aiming for. Regarding the transitions, we paid close attention to ensure they felt seamless and deliberate. Instead of opting for a basic crossfade, which could risk looking cheap and lazy, we chose a method that involved merging the two shots organically. By having the paint strokes blend and follow the shapes within both images, we achieved a cohesive transition where the highlights preceded the shadows, creating a more visually striking effect. A.I. generated imagery was not used in the making of this main title.
The decision to use painterly textures and stop-motion effects in our main title was aimed at capturing a surrealist interpretation of Los Angeles. Drawing inspiration from Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," we chose a painterly aesthetic to convey the surreal ambiance, influenced by the painting's exploration of themes like loneliness, isolation, and urban desolation, and how it's an apt amalgamation of the mundane and often overlooked sites that make up a modern city.
"Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper (1942)