Speed and acceleration: How we created a video for Vienna’s new subway

Over the last few days, speed and acceleration turned out to be the topic of our agenda. The Viennese architects, YF architects and FRANZ architects, reached out to us to create an image video for Vienna’s biggest infrastructure project of the next decade.The challenge: Two weeks for a two minute video showcasing Vienna’s new subway line and most of all showing animated passengers.

The architects and the design

The design of the young architects is fresh and clean. The main topic of public transportation – speed – mostly influenced their architectural concept: Clear spaces, reduction to the color code and the perception of velocity and movement. Their concept came out on top of 32 international entries in a design competition. The rhythm of wall panels is changed according to the speed of the arriving and departing trains and the passenger’s movement. The entry buildings are shaped with a clear diagonal crease signaling the descending escalator.

The challenge and the solution

The main challenge was to create a two minutes movie with animated people in about two weeks. The solution to our dilemma was found in the recollection of the idea of time lapse. This idea allows a clear view to the architecture while the passengers become a vanishing stream. Technically we solved the idea as we imagined the process in reality: While the camera moves with 25 images per second the passengers are moving five times that fast. The image of the passenger will be rather like from a flipbook than a fluid animation. This concept visually celebrates the contrasting juxtaposition of ever emerging rhythms of passengers, trains and the calm steadiness of architecture. Thanks to our 3D Models from IONOMO we were able to create this lively setting.