Inspirational Work with Nodes: Sciences Po

Nicolas Lichtlé was kind enough to share his thoughts on Yanobox Nodes and its use on his latest project Sciences Po, which was made to showcase the Sciences Politiques School's diversity through the visualizing of its admission process.

How did you get this cool project and how much time did you have?

A former student of Sciences Po (now a director and writer) knew my work and asked me to work with her on this movie. We were given only ten days to make the video and had to discuss the storyboard and validate each step with the head of communication of Sciences Po before we could start working on the motion design.

What tools / Workflow did you use?

I had a lot of freedom in creating the graphic atmosphere of the video. We chose to restrict colors to only white and red as these two colors make up the school's visual identity. At first, I simply sketched the storyboard with a pencil and paper. Then I used After Effects in association with three plugins, Nodes, Plexus and Particular. I’ve always enjoyed working with Nodes, it is simple and very fast, and allows for all kinds of experiments.

What shots did you use Nodes for in the project?

I used Nodes several times in the video to illustrate the students and the incredible number of subjects taught at Sciences Po. I like the cosmogonical and ethereal aspect of the particles ballet that I staged using Nodes.

How long have you been doing this? How did you start?

I started working as a freelance motion designer 15 years ago. I have worked for french TV channels (Arte, Canal+), on shorts programs, documentaries, corporate films as well as feature films (typographical animation for teasers for example). More recently, I had the opportunity to explore the fields of museography and historical movies.