Concept

I have always been fascinated by snakes and the way they seem to effortlessly glide as they move. Snakes are also very "moldable" in their flexibility; they can shape their bodies in ways that allow them to stay flush against almost any object and terrain they are on. After watching a nature documentary of a snake hiding in a tree to catch its prey, I had the sudden thought of truly camouflaging a snake into the form of a tree. At first, the viewer would not even notice that the tree is made of snakes, but by the end, when the tree suddenly “slithers” away, they will have to stop for a moment and revisit their initial assumptions of the scene. Could the whole environment be made out of snakes? In this case, I wanted to break the viewer's reality of the scene and turn it into an almost surreal fantasy.

Made in Adobe Photoshop, After Affects, and Maya 2018. Rendered using Arnold.